Fate Phantom Night
by The Kingdom of Ruby Luxuria
Summary: While staying in a prison, Akira Kurusu found himself in another adventure. This time he possesses his other self in a different world and becoming a Fool-class Servant. Also, this world seems to be very unstable thanks to many crossover from two different Verses (Persona series, Nasuverse)
1. Worlds Collide

**Worlds Collide**

(Warning: This is not a story made by an awesome writer that writes beautifully that your pants are wet just by reading it. Bad writing is expected. Keep your rage comments away from this story. Also, don't expect me to reply to your questions if you only appear as 'guest' and not using your own account.)

This is crazy.

For the sake of imprisoning the wrongful prime minister, he had to be sent to juvenile and constantly investigated by either a group of people willingly to pursue justice or those who really want to put convict him of something he didn't do for the sake of saving that prime minister.

Either way, this isn't a really good thing for him since this place is pretty much a prison with an overly complicated name for underage kids.

That means Akira will be spending most of his times with possible suspects of horrendous crimes such as rape, murder, assault, etc. Compare to those, the crime of 'stealing other people's heart' seems like a bad pickup line.

But, hey, not all of these people did such crimes. Some of them were framed the same way they did. The only thing they didn't have right now is a friend who has an older sibling that work as lawyers.

Still, the way they look at him when he entered this place just now… it is lucky for him to know how to fight, or at least defend himself.

Now he only needs to spend a really long time in this place before the prosecutor able to put that guy into jail for good.

How to spend time here?

Zzzzz…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well… this is new…

As of now, he found himself sitting on a really big chair, which is located inside a really huge hall.

He also notes that this place is blue.

"Velvet Room?" he wonders to himself before actually realizing of two figures, sitting and standing across the room before him.

""You are… Igor and Lavenza, right? So this _is_ a Velvet Room."

"You are correct, inm- my guest," Lavenza seems to be correcting herself for a moment there, "This is indeed the Velvet Room, though it is now different than what it was supposed to be."

Igor, who has been smiling from earlier, speaks up to him, "This is probably due to the connection of that."

His eyes turn to the side of him, making Akira having an urge to do the same as well.

To his right, he sees a huge golden cup near the wall of that hall, "That's the Holy Grail. Isn't that thing died already?"

"The form it took is indeed lying dormant, and now the grail is back to how it is supposed to be," Igor mutters, "But, it seems something has been tampered with thanks to it returning to its original form."

"Tampered? What is it?"

Lavenza quickly speaks up, "Before my master continues with his explanation, may I ask if you have any idea what alternate universe is?"

"Alternate… universe? I've seen of that word before, but I think I read it in a website or something?"

She explains to him, "Alternate universe refers to worlds similar to ours, but having differences of their own unlike ours. For example, as you are being imprisoned in the real world, in alternate universe, you and your friends roam the world, feared by those around you."

That sounds like a bad ending or something…

Akira now wonders of this situation, "What does that has anything to do with that giant cup?"

"It is appears that for some unknown reasons, the cup has connected two universes into one."

"Two… into one? What does that mean?"

Lavenza responds to him, "As my Master has told you, somewhere out there, thanks to the existences of two Holy Grails in two different universes, those two worlds have combined into one. As of now, the citizens of both worlds are living as the people of that one world."

Igor then speaks up, "Unfortunately, such predicament is not only impossible, but it may cause harm toward the new world and any other worlds connected to it. This is where your assistance is required."

Beside the man is… him?

He's eyes must be playing tricks with him.

Akira is now looking at himself standing close to the man, looking around in shock as he finally sees the man on the throne, "You're not joking, old man… There is another me…"

"Wha- who?" Akira turns to stare at the man, now looking back at the two Velvet Room's occupants, "Who is this?"

The girl in blue quickly replies to him, "This is you from the new world. He is now in the state of near death experience."

"You mean, coma? What happened?"

The other Akira scratches his head, mumbling, "I… I can't remember… I was helping a friend cleaning up a club room, but it took a bit too long that I ended up finished it at night. Then…I think I saw two people fighting each other with some sort of weapons. I think they heard me, so I ran as fast as I could. The next thing I know is that I got stabbed hard by a red pole or something. Then I heard a female voice calling out for me…"

Igor interrupts him, "Then, the Holy Grail War has begun."

"Holy Grail… War?" Both humans turn toward the long-nosed man.

Yet the man ignores him, "You shall now be summoned to this new world, inhabiting your other body as your other self sleeps in his coma. You two will share a memory together, albeit it will take time for you to remember everything about the other one. Everything you need to know about the war will be within you."

"Wait," Akira calls him out, "What do I get from all of this? I just headshot a god with a Satan. Things are already too big for me to handle."

Lavenza suddenly bows at him, "Please forgive us. We know that it is too early for you to do all of this, but please consider our options. You are the only one available for this absurd request. Think of this as a preparation of what to come. One day you may have to dance, or meeting your predecessors for a crazier adventure. This is nothing compared to whatever your future may hold."

Whaaaaa?

Akira asks again, "Still, pulling me out in the middle of my juvenile…"

The white-haired girl responds, "Do not worry about that. As of now, your body will be moving by its own. It will speak as if you are there, but it won't react much to anything else other than what's needed. Once you've return from your work, no matter how long has it been, that will be the time when you have been released from your imprisonment."

Like an auto-pilot? That's neat.

Igor concludes, "Then, let us start your new rehabilitation."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akira quickly opens up his eyes, pulling himself up.

"Wha-"

Before he could even form a word inside his brain, a loud ringing sound instead appears inside his two ears, deafening him as he slowly falls back onto the couch he was lying on.

Suddenly, things started to flash before him.

Holy Grail War…

Abnormalities…

Investigate…

Information popping up inside his brain, as he tries so hard to ease the pain by imaginatively holding his brain with his hand. It doesn't work and his brain is still hurt.

That's when he learns the type of life this version of Akira Kurusu had to live in.

Apparently, instead of moving to Shujin after "beating up" Shidou, he transferred here, in Fuyuki as he supposed to stay with a cousin he didn't think he knows of, named Tsubasa Oribe.

Somehow that name sounds familiar, yet he has no idea where he heard that name before…

Spending time inside people can make you forget something…

That came out wrong…

Sighing hard, he pulls himself up again as he finally notices someone there, standing just at the corner, looking at him with a weird look on his face.

Akira stares at this strange blue-haired man, who strangely wears a blue and black outfit with some metal plates around him, holding a green spear that is resting on one of his shoulders.

"Cosplayer?"

The blue-haired man is clearly looking pissed, "You… I told you, I am NOT a cosplayer!"

Sensing something akin to a dangerous predicament, Akira quickly jumps off from the couch, away from biting teeth of a pack of dogs, now landing rear-first onto the floor.

Hold on, his brain is still not finished reading whatever message he received just now! There is no way he can tell what the fuck is going on right now!

La-

"Lancer…"

That word jumps out of his lips in the form of a whisper, though it is quite loud enough that the guy in blue quickly picks up on that.

The man now stares directly at him, "You… are you a magus? Do you know about the Holy Grail War?"

Magus? Does that word has anything to do with this war thing? That world is still not processed in his mi-

Wait… magus…

Magus or magi are a group of people that can do magic or magecraft as what they call it. Magecraft for them is what technology is for others. For them, magic is akin to a miracle, or sorcery, meaning something so impossible for them to do.

The Masters, or the participants of the Grail War, or usually (most likely) made up of magi, with their Servants, or the one that do most of the fighting, are made up of heroes of the old, summoned into the present till they are dead or the end of the war.

Summoned into the… wait, is he a Servant?

More info came into his brain.

Servants are usually made up of seven common classes, with some of the irregular ones here and there. The common ones are…

Whoa, there!

Akira managed to jumps away from the tip of the spear reaching him and quickly runs out of the house, into the yard as he finally takes notice of how big the home he's living in.

It's actually quite big, surprisingly. Don't know if he could get use to stay in a really big space, not when most of his place isn't very big by this place's standard.

Wait, no, why is he getting distracted? That Servant guy is still chasing after him!

Wait, how did he know of that guy's identity as a Servant in the first place?

No time for that!

Akira now steps far off, nearing the wall as he stares at Lancer, now approaching him with his two dogs on both sides.

"If you are a magus, it is possible that you are a candidate for the remaining Masters, but in any case of you not being a magus or even a Master, that means that you are an unwanted witness. That also means that my Master has no other way but to kill you. Do consider this as a mercy kill!"

The two dogs now bark at him, before rushing forward toward him.

Now in fear, Akira screams in anger in his own mind, 'Damn it, Igor! How am I going to protect myself without Metaverse!?'

 _Then, will you just stand there, submit to your own death in this strange world?_

!?

That voice…

"No!" Akira screams out, "I just spent the whole year fighting all kind of people! I even fought a god! There is no way I am letting myself killed by a cosplayer and his dog!"

As he screams out and resisting, Lancer stops in his track. He sees the man's eyes slowly turning yellow as he now mutters in confusion, "Are those Mystic Eyes?"

His hands slowly grab his green spear, now holding it as if he is about to stab him. Those eyes are clearly an indication of something dangerous.

 _Very well. Once again, I have heeded your resolve. Vow to me._

With that announcement inside his head, he suddenly felt an immense pain within his own brain.

"Wh-why?" he clutches onto his head, "Is… is it because this body is still new to this?"

Is that why he felt the same pain he had before, when all has become such a norm for him before?

 _I am thou, thou art I. Thou who art willing to perform all sacrilegious acts for thine own justice! Call upon my name, and release thy rage! Show the strength of thy will ascertain all on thine own, though thou be chained to Hell itself!_

His bird mask appears, covering his eyes as he is still inside his casual clothing. This means…

Quickly grabbing the edges of the mask, he slowly pulling the mask off, followed by a scream and blood splattered all over the ground.

As the mask is no longer on his face, his body is now filled with burning blue flame, covering himself as he now stops all three of his assailants on their tracks.

Lancer is now even more confused by this development, "Wha-, what on earth is going here? Self-immolation? What is he planning to do?"

Suddenly, he sees it.

He sees a pair of red eyes and a red smile appear on the flame as it slowly disappears away.

Now, standing before him is the same boy, who is wearing black coat around him as he grins wide at him. Behind him is a red figure with a pair of black wings, a pair of high heel shoes and a large top hat. The same devilish looking stare and smile is now below the hat.

"What kind of familiar is that!?" He screams out as he and his dogs are preparing for an attack.

He can feel that whatever familiar that thing is, it is no ordinary familiar; not just on its strange appearance, but on the power that thing exhibits.

The dogs now jump forward toward him, going for a bite.

"Eiha!"

The two dogs are then hit by a strange purple light, now falls onto the ground, looking pained.

"What did you just do!? What kind of magecraft are those?"

But he is quickly taken aback, now jumping away as the bird guy swooping close toward him, startling him.

Akira now moves forward as he pulls out his dagger, going straight toward the man in blue hair and tries to attack him, but Lancer is obviously stronger than him, enough to just shrug his close range attack with his own.

The winged Persona he just summoned, Arsene now flies back to him, "Your true strength is slowly returning back to you. Use any advantage you can have!"

The Persona now disappears, with the bird mask reappears around his eyes once more.

"That's a good thing to know!" he screams out, trying to pull out a Persona he feels can help him in this situation.

Once again, he rips off his mask, this time a lot easier than before, "Setanta!"

"WHAT!?" Lancer looks like he is really taken aback by that name.

With his face now covers in flame, a figure in white metal armor, a bowl haircut and a blue and bronze scarf wrapped around his head appears. In his hand is a spear that looks really normal compare to the other spear in this place.

"I have come before you, my Master."

Master? Him?

Wait, since when this guy even speaking?

The man, Setanta, now steps forward as he points his spear before Lancer, "I know not of who you are, spearman, but you are a definite threat to my Master!"

Lancer seems to be really pissed, "That man is your Master? Then, are you a Servant? What about that guy from before!? Is he also a Servant!? So you summoned two Servants!?"

Sounds like someone is really pissed off… and greatly confused judging by the numerous questions he gave him.

Lancer now points his green spear toward Setanta, "And what about you!? Why did you have my name!? I don't recall having that stupid haircut of yours!"

"You are speaking too much!" Setanta jumps forward, lunging his spear toward Lancer, as the other guy quickly pushes the spear away with his own.

Lancer then jumps away, now going for his own stab, but is quickly stops as he nearly getting hit by the spear, thanks to a scream,"Dormin Rush!"

As he avoids the spear, he felt the tip of his chin hits the tip of that spear, spilling blood.

Tingling sense flooded his brain.

Slowly, Lancer falls down as he feels dizzy for a brief moment.

"Chance!" Akira jumps off toward him, striking him repeatedly with full strength as he jumps all over the place, so fast that he appears as a black blur around him.

As he goes for a final strike, Lancer quickly pulls his spear up, letting his weapon to take the damage instead.

The pole weapon now breaks into two, with Lancer now pulls himself up as he screams out, "Master, I'll be retreating for now!"

The man quickly runs off from there, disappearing in a flash as Akira now wonders, "That's a Servant? I wonder who he is?"

"Cu Chulainn, my Master," Setanta replies to him.

"Cu Chulainn? Isn't that…"

"My name. Yes, he is me. Rather, he is the real me of this new world. I am just a Persona, but he is the real hero from Celtic mythology."

"Say…" Kurusu springs a question, "How are you able to speak?"

"You are a Servant, Master. I believe that is the reason why I am able to speak, or interact with you like this."

He slowly disappears, muttering, "There are still more Persona that will catch up to you."

More Persona? That sounds like an OP skill for him…

Noble Phantasm…

Wait, why is that word suddenly appearing inside his brain?

Why would he describe his Persona as a Noble Phantasm?

Guess there will be more questions for Igor.

Akira didn't realize at all that a pair of eyes is looking at him from nearby.

A twin-tailed girl in red jacket is peeking at him from a taller house before running away as she realizes someone is coming.

Back at the house, Akira is still standing around, looking at his self as he wonders how to turn off his clothing.

No, seriously, he has no idea how to do that.

He needs to turn this mode off before his cousin, who somehow still not around yet, sees him in this outfit. There is no way he can answer her massive question.

He suddenly heard footsteps, turning around just to see someone just jumping over the wall and into the yard.

This someone has a blonde hair, a metal tiara over her hair and purple and white outfit. She is also holding a pole weapon inside her hand.

The girl seems to be looking around, before seeing him, quickly turning shock to see him, "Wha- a Servant? Fool-class Servant?"

She then brings her weapon before her, aiming at him as she screams out, "Answer me, who are you!?"

 **True Name: Akira Kurusu  
Alignment: Trickster Neutral**

 **Strength: D+  
Endurance: A-  
Agility: A  
Mana: ?  
Luck: B-**

 **Skills:**

Metaverse Navigation: A++

Persona Magic: A

Presence Concealment: B+

Third Eye: A++

Eye of the Mind (False): B

 **Noble Phantasm:**

The Mask of Oneself: Persona Summoning: E - A++

Stealing One's Heart: Treasure Theft: A

?: EX

 **Not a very good way to end this chapter isn't it.**

 **Ouh… why did I feel like this story is going to have a lot of hate comments…**

 **I'm sorry for those who wishes to see me posting new chapter of Fate DxD Order or Persona 5 Lovesick DLC, but this idea enters my brain for some reason and filling it up that I can no longer think of something for those two stories.**

 **So I had to let these ideas out first. Thank you, Persona 5 Dancing Star Night's hype.**

 **Still, how does this story goes? First, this is a story about Akira in a world where Persona and Fate's worlds combine into a big pile of mess. Second, the HGW will follow the style of both Apocrypha (team battle) and Strange Fake (two wars doing their own business). Third, the story is it's own story. It is not canon to anything.**

 **Akira may have been OP, but as the story mentioned, he gradually gains back his Persona, so it will take time for him to even be as strong as a Servant. That Lancer just lose thanks to unexpected development and not having his true weapon around.**

 **Yes, this Lancer is none other than Cu Chulainn from Fate/Prototype. Why Proto Cu, you might asked? Because I want to use Misaya Reiroukan, that's all.**

 **Other Master-Servant teams may have been pulled out from any other Typemoon stories, like the usual Shirou/Saber or Rin/Archer, or from the newest series, Kairi/Mordred or Sieg/Astolfo and such, or from FGO (Ritsuka/Mashu or anybody) or even the gag comic (my fav, Kohaku/Sakura Saber).**

 **Or you can ask for a certain combination of Master and Servant, like asking for Shirou Emiya to have Nero instead of Artoria, or having Ann Takamaki appearing there alongside, say, Medb, or even pulling out characters from non-Persona title that is part of SMT universe, like characters from SMT, Devil Survivor or Tokyo Mirage Session.**

 **No, really, I need help determine who is going to be part of the HGW or part of Akira's tea- I mean, part of the story considering**

 **Confidant? Yeah… that is going to be fun… this part may be different for this story, thanks to the fusion of worlds…**

 **Palace? As stated on the stat above, Palace is going to be a thing. Considering some of the characters in Nasuverse can be really fucked up in term of cognition (like a certain redheaded hero wannabe), Palace is going to be a big deal in this story.**

 **Thus, selecting the Masters and Servants are going to be important. Some of them do capable of making a Palace.**

 **For example: Kiritsugu may have this Palace of him being a hero while hurting others, while Shirou may have this Palace of being a hero as if people really need it, and his life is always on the line. Kirei can have pure destruction, Gilgamesh has Babylon as his literal Palace and so on and so forth.**

 **Next: Akira is still searching for a reason for him being in that world, only to find out about the first Palace of that world.**


	2. Reality Palace

**Reality Palace**

(A/N: I was given two reviews that the stat for Joker needs to be changed. I admit that stats writing are not my best work. I mainly just put letters based on strengths on their own world and not using Fate's world as a basis. Still, that will definitely leaves tons of error, so I'll be changing them. New stat is down there. Thank you and please help me with those ABC rank because I really don't know how strong C is compare to D and B or the difference between A and EX.)

"Welcome to the Velvet Room," Igor opens up the greeting with his usual greet, before opens up to a new dialogue, "Ah, it seems we have a special guest today.

Lavenza is disturbed a bit as her eyes stares straight toward the imposing figure before the two residents of the Velvet Room.

This man has a very huge build, wearing black clothing with his face having load of hair all over the skins.

The man now smiles at him, speaking to the long-nosed resident, "So, he is your choice of champion?"

"I believe in what this guest of mine is capable of."

"But why the new face? You have two lives who are constantly making sure Death not coming into their worlds and you have someone with the first god of Shinto by his side. Why the one with a Satan, though?"

"Why? I believe his power can still grow beyond that. I believe he can do more than just killing a fake god."

The man with facial hair seems to be thinking of something, "To leave the fate of a world on a rebel's hand, we sure sounds alike."

Igor grins wide, "Aren't rebels can also be considered heroes?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Ruler-class Servant?"

Akira is now serving tea toward this blonde girl.

This strange foreigner, who just comes in as if she is dress to kill, tried to strike him down with her pole weapon just now.

Now she is drinking her tea inside her dark blue jacket with a shirt and a tie underneath it, making her looks like she is wearing a schoolgirl outfit of some kind.

His stare somewhat startled her as she wonders, "Wha- what were you looking at?"

"I was just wondering why a Ruler appears in the Holy Grail War. I am not well verse in this grail war stuff, but from what I was given the info of, the war is between a team of seven against each other. Ruler is not part of the war, right?"

Ruler nods, "Yes. I was summoned by the grail itself to overseer the war."

"Why?"

"You did not know of this? The war is no longer a free for all with seven teams against each other. This is now a Greater Grail War."

"Greater… Grail War?"

That info do seems to be registered inside Akira's brain, but he really couldn't think of the meaning of that word. It will take a really long time to study all of this material.

Luckily for him, Ruler decides to answer that for him, "Instead of the usual format of the war, it is now a team battle of seven teams of Master and Servants against another seven. Both sides will be fighting each other till one team is finally defeated."

"And the winners will get their wish, correct?"

"Indeed. Now, answer my question. What kind of Servant are you? Why do you inhabit a body of a human?"

When she asked him said questions, her eyes are glaring straight toward him, as if she is really strict as her work as Ruler.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I was sent here from my own world to investigate some sort of abnormalities. I don't know why I inhabit another's body for that matter either."

"I see…"

Ruler suddenly turns toward him, closely looking at him before she speaks up, "Your name is Akira Kurusu. I have never heard of a hero with such name before. Are you perhaps a Counter Force?"

Counter Force? What on earth is that supposed to mean?

She keeps on staring at him, now seeing his confused face and opens up, "You don't know what a Counter Force is?"

He shakes his head, "I don't think I get all the information I need of this world. Either that or I get all info very slow."

Sigh, she mutters, "Counter Force is a deterrent force empowered by Alaya in order to protect mankind from any danger. If you didn't know that, then that must mean you are not one. That begs more questions; who sent you here?"

Em… Igor?

"Holy Grail?" is the answer he chose instead.

He feels like his current existence is closer to the Holy Grail than to the long-nosed man. It's like his power is thanks to that golden thing.

"Then… you are like me. I am also being employed by the grail."

Somehow he feels like they are speaking of two different things here…

She whispers to herself, "An unknown Heroic Spirit that is not a Counter Guardian… I don't know what else you are supposed to be, but I had a feeling that something strange happened in this war."

"Jeanne D'arc."

Eh? Maiden of Orleans? Why would she bring her name up?

Akira sees that Ruler is giving a calming smile at him, "That's my name. If we are both being employed by the same Master, then I have no reason to hide my name before you."

"Thanks…" he nods, "Then, you trust me?"

"I have a feeling I should."

"Then, how do you know my name? I didn't remember telling you that."

"As a Ruler, I have a skill called True Name Discernment. I can learn the names of all Servants if I ever sees them."

True Name…

From what he can learn, Servant's True Name must be guarded at all time as exposing one can expose their strengths and weaknesses. Does that mean he has the advantage here?

His Personas may have been heroes, demons, angels or gods, but none of them seems to be acting like what their names are. He knows that Cu Chulainn has this spear called Gae Bolg, which is really dangerous in his myth, but he has never seen that guy using his spear for any special attack. At least he gives buffs for all Phantom Thieves on the front. At most he have inherited some of the cool spells when he is being fused into, and none of them is a spear skill.

Still, Setanta, the younger Cu, act by himself earlier without him telling what to do. Personas usually don't do that. That is something he needs to figure out why.

"Ah, we have a guest?"

Both of them quickly turn around, now seeing a girl with black hair in pink top and yellow dress enters the room, looking at them both.

His self of this world remembers her. She is his cousin, Tsubasa Oribe, who he lives with as of this moment.

It seems he heard from her that both her and her sister, Ayaha moves into Fuyuki all the way from Tokyo because the company they are working with is about to have a branch in Kyushu.

Ayaha just took him in as part of the juvenile program.

That's all they told him.

Tsubasa quickly moves close to them both, bowing at him, "Sorry, Kurusu-san. I was meeting a friend before and my sister is going to work till tomorrow, so I had to go home by myself. That's why I am late."

Jeanne suddenly stands up, "I should be going now."

"Wait," Akira follows her action, "Do you even have a place to stay tonight?"

"I'm living at the church nearby."

Tsubasa quickly speaks up, "It's already too late. A woman shouldn't be walking around at night."

"Aren't you the same thing?" Akira turns toward her, startling her and turning her action into rubbing her head sheepishly.

The sole man shakes his head as he enters the kitchen, "Just stay here till next morning."

His cousin stares at him, "Kurusu-san, what are you doing?"

"I'm going to cook something for dinner tonight."

"Eh, you know how to cook?"

No, this world's Akira shouldn't know how to cook. This Akira never transferred to Tokyo and lives inside a café…

Tokyo… Shuujin…

What happened to this version of the members of Phantom Thieves? Are they fine? Will they faced the same thing without him around, or will their lives becoming worse without him around.

Akira shivers when he thinks about them…

They may not be his real friends, but he couldn't help it that he feels worried about them…

Jeanne speaks up, "Thank you for your hospitality, then."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hmm…

Last night is strange…

But what's stranger is the lack of Velvet Room in his dream.

Usually when he sees something big like this, Igor always appear to offer some words for him.

But that Igor was a fake, and he probably just wanted to see how much of a progress his 'game' goes.

Therefore, he has no idea how the real Igor works…

Do they actually kill the Personas just to fuse them or strengthening them, or that's just Yaldaboath unable to do jack shit about those stuff?

Now that he thinks about it, does Goro Akechi went into the Velvet Room too? Did he do executions too?

Now he is hoping that a door into that place is around here in this world. There is no way he would just wait till all of his Personas appear inside him. He feels like while waiting for his strongest sets of Personas to appear, he will have to go with what he have for now.

It is by luck that he manages to pull out Setanta, one of those that are quite dependable to some extent, last night.

Not sure if he is going to be lucky again next time…

"Hmm?"

Wait, he didn't sense Jeanne nearby, and she's not in Ayaha's room, where she's supposed to stay in for the night.

Did she actually get out earlier in the morning?

She really wants to be that neutral, huh?

Shrugging off, Akira walks down there, now reaching toward where the dining table is, now seeing Tsubasa preparing lunch boxes.

"Boyfriend?" is his first reaction, seeing those two boxes.

The black-haired girl quickly pulls her head up toward him, looking confused before turning back toward her box and is in shock, "Ah, no! One of these is for you, Kurusu-san!"

"Me? That's nice for you to do that. Thank you."

"It's nothing." she shakes her head, "Until not too long ago, I was caught up with my own work that I didn't learned about you being convicted as a criminal until my sister told me about taking you in."

Ah… that one…

"I didn't say that you are one. I don't believe that a nice person like you ever becoming a thug and start attacking people…"

"I was framed," Kurusu speaks up to her, "The guy seems to be a big shot that he is able to fool the police that I hit him. He was too drunk and falls down on his own, yet the cops just listen to him. I bet he even threatened a woman he harassed there to play along."

"That's… horrible…"

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure karma will catch up to him."

Things may not be as different as in his world, but he knows that at least one person will hunt him down; Akechi

He believes that since Phantom Thieves aren't around and if Akechi do gets his Persona here, that guy is as good as dead. That detective is truly crazy. That power of his can easily defeated any Shadows to a pulp.

But, if he didn't gets his Persona here, then Shidou is nothing but a drunkard who may have been working with an already existing political group but unable to force others to get psychotic breakdown without being seen as suspicious. It is thanks to Akechi he manages to go that far after all.

The only thing he is still worried of is his friends here. Kamoshida may still treat the school like his own. Madarame may still use his students' talents for his own gain. Kaneshiro may still be ruling Shibuya as of now.

Okumura… well, he did bad stuff. To be honest, now that he thinks about it, Okumura isn't the worst person, unlike those three he mentioned before, the problem with Okumura isn't so dire as the rest of them.

Sure, workers aren't doing well under him. Sure, competitions are pretty much dead around him.

But he is not the only douchebag treating their workers like that. There is this thing in Japan called 'karoshi' and 'black company', so that's not new.

And people compete against their competitions all the time, one way or another.

The only reason why Phantom Thieves were after him are all because of personal reasons.

They need a big shot so that people started to believe them, and Haru is going to be married to an asshole. Those are just selfish reasons for them to chase after his heart.

Still, one thing he is scared of now is the well beings of his friends. Without him, they are pretty much-

"Ah, Kurusu-san, we are already late!"

He is snapped back to the real world, quickly feasting his eyes upon a panicking young girl who is staring toward the clock, "We should be going by now!"

Giving his box to him, she quickly packs her stuff as she now holds her bag in one hand and a toast on another… wait…

Akira now just stares at him, "You're not going to run with that thing in your mouth, right?"

"What are you talking about!? Let's hurry up already!" she screams out as she grabs his hand and pulls him out of the house in a hurry.

But how did she pull him again? With which hand? Of course, the one that held the toast, which is now inside her mouth.

She did…

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Apparently, he is now a student of this place called Homurahara. The uniform is as brown as it could get that it doesn't' seem to suit him. Also, he is in his third year.

Somehow, in a different world, he pops out from his mother way too early.

Meeting his friends now is going to be so awkward…

Following Tsubasa from behind, the two finally reaches the academy, without having his cousin hitting a male student while running (or it would have become a trifecta of Anime Cliché 101) as they barely even make it.

"Kurusu," a male voice seems to be greeting him as the two are already on the other side of the gate, exhausted from all of the running (at least she is).

Hearing his name being called out, he turns to his left, seeing a spectacled man with blue hair staring straight at him, "I didn't strike you as the late runner type."

Issei Ryuudou.

The president of the Student Body. A strict person to boot. Very strict that he can be really scary in his determination.

Is all Student Council presidents have to be strict?

He also wants to be a monk.

That… is not information he think he'd care to get…

"Sorry about that," he quickly gives off an excuse, "I was too tired last night that I slept in this morning."

There is also the fact that he barely has any clue on where the school is. He just arrived there last night after all…

"Tired?" Issei seems to be walking closer to him, "I hope you're not doing anything weird last night."

"He's helping me out with the club cleaning yesterday."

Another voice comes into the conversation.

This time the owner of the voice is a red-haired man who seems to be kind enough judging from his face of tranquility.

Shirou Emiya. The janitor of the school.

He is not a literal janitor; he is just a student. But somehow he has this repairing skill and is always around to fix anything in this school. He is also seems to be a do gooder that helps people out for no reason.

Is he naïve or is he just that nice? This world's Akira's memory is only limited to a non-Phantom Thieves observation so he has no idea.

Issei now turns toward him, "Why would you do clean a club? You are part of the Student Body!"

Shirou simply shakes the back of his head, "Shinji just didn't clean the archery club enough, so someone had to do it."

"Emiya, how many times must I tell you not to be nice with that guy?"

"He's a friend, Issei."

"A friend doesn't talk about their friend behind their back."

"That's just how Shinji is. He probably has a reason for acting like that."

Akira just stare at the two arguing about this one guy named Shinji, not realizing that both of them are already reaching their class, with Tsubasa already joining her friends somewhere else.

He senses a stare, quickly turns around to see the one who owns this strange, suspicious aura.

From his point of view, he is peering outside of the class, toward Tsubasa and her peers, noticing that while all of them are having a conversation of their own, the one with twin tails as her hair is actually glaring at him, before looking away as if she is actually interested with whatever her friends are talking about.

He can also feel something unknown behind her, but he sees nothing there so he couldn't identify this strange feeling of being watched.

" _Trickster,_ " Arsene's calling out to him from inside, " _A gentleman thief should use any advantage they have in order to achieve what they desired, especially if the advantage is well within their abilities."_

He sure speaks a lot ever since appearing in this world. Akira feels the need to actually find an entrance to the Velvet Room to ask for details if he didn't meet Igor again tonight.

Wait, abilities… Does he still have those skills he has from Confidants?

If he does, then that also means his most useful skill, Third Eye, which can reveal something unknown before him, should be around as well.

Normally, he won't be using that in the real world because there's no need to. In real world, Third Eye only reveals stuff that he can just find with his normal first and second eyes.

But what about this world? He can even summon Personas outside the Metaverse, so using Third Eye may reveal something more, right?

Let's try it out!

Focusing all he can, his vision is slowly dimming. Everything around is darkening, as if someone just lowering the brightness of the TV screen.

!?

Whaaaaaat?

Gh-ghost!

There's a ghost behind that twin tailed girl!

A ghost of silver-haired girl in red jacket, with red outli-

Red outline figure?

In Metaverse, a Shadow is outlined blue, yellow or red as an indication of how dangerous they are when facing in battle, from easiest to hardest.

But this figure has red all over her…

Why does the Third Eye labeling a ghost like that?

Ah!

Servant!

Of course, there are details he got in his brain that he just decided to skim over!

A Servant can turn invisible before normal human to avoid the war to be known by non-magi, subsequently hiding the existence of the moonlit world as well.

That's no ghost! That's- actually that is a ghost, not in a haunting way…

Wait, then that girl is her Master. Why else would she stick close to he- crap!

The figure already notices of him looking at her and is now paying more attention to him.

Quick! Look back to the fro-

"I hope you are not one of those students that have crushes on that Tohsaka," Issei doesn't sound too happy at him.

"Tohsaka?"

That's her name?

The other Akira didn't seem to recognize her, so the name didn't register in his brain at all.

Issei is still glaring at him, "Rin Tohsaka; the diva of Homurahara. She has been playing the hearts of so many men around her. Don't be fool by her personality. She is a manipulative witch; the worst one of all."

"Don't be like that, Issei. Tohsaka isn't that bad of a person."

"Says someone who is still befriending a guy who hits his sister on daily basis."

"Shinji isn't hitting her every day. He just has his off day. You are just exaggerating stuff here."

Who is this Shinji they keep talking about?

"Good to see that you are still alive, Emiya."

With them now turning their heads toward their sides, they are now looking at a blue-haired man with hair so wavy, one can easily confused it with dyed seaweeds.

Ah, so this is Shinji Matou. This guy is labeled as annoying by the other Kurusu.

He then slowly turns toward him, "And you seem to be so well too, it seems."

The man is about to walk away from there to join a group of girls as Akira quickly calls him out, "No thanks?"

"What are you talking about, transfer student?"

"We cleaned up the club for you and you don't even give us any thanks? If I were to make my friends to a chore for me, I would at least treat them or something, not just walk away for the sake of desperately flirting with the ladies."

Shinji seems to be smirking, "Sure, I'll be giving you thanks for trying to be Homurahara's brownie's second in command."

"That doesn't sound very sincere," Akira mutters.

Matou just ignores him, doing his own business with Shirou quickly speaks up to him, "Just let him be, Kurusu. I just really love helping people out."

The leader of the Phantom Thieves now turning toward the redhead, "What the heck is Homurahara's brownie?"

"It's a nickname they gave me. I helped around the school with anything."

"Without getting paid for?"

"Why would I? I do want to help out, that's all."

"Why?"

"I…" he seems to be hesitant, "I want to be an ally of justice."

…

What does justice have anything to do with helping people with their chores?

It seems he didn't need to ask that question, as Shirou keeps on rambling, "I want to be a hero for everyone, and this is just the first step for that. When I grow up, I want to help people even in the times of need. If something bad happen to them, I want to save them all."

Is this guy… a chuuni? Did he watch way too many shonen anime?

It seems he needs to ask this guy some more, but that will have to wait because the clumsiest teacher he has ever seen is now doing the homeroom roll call thing.

Note to self; this teacher hates her name so much… or a certain animal. He has no idea which is which…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At first he was scared that he had to re-learn everything from the beginning considering he literally had to restart his life from day one of being transferred.

Luckily he is older here, so at least some of the subjects are quite new. So new that he may be in trouble of not knowing everything here.

It's not like he didn't know everything. Before while studying with everyone in the café, he took some of the chances to glance over Makoto and Haru's notes just for fun.

At least he still did not change in how he approach his studies; looking somewhere else before being called out by a teacher to answer something.

Now he only needed to find a place to eat.

His first choice is the rooftop, but somehow he felt like if the rooftop is accessible for everyone in the first place, people are just going to use that place to hangout.

So he traverses throughout the school, looking for a good place as his feet just brings him all over the place.

He finally stops before a club house, now looking straight before the entrance.

He remembers how big this place is to clean, and two people took a really long time to even clean this up, let alone one person. Shirou must be really dedicated to his 'ally of justice' decision.

Seriously, how is cleaning a club has anything to do with justice?

Maybe for different people, justice means differently? Akechi's justice is all about enacting revenge against a single man with any means necessary. For the Phantom Thieves, their justice is helping those who are unable to help themselves and changing the hearts of corrupted ones without the need of bloodshed. Shirou's possibly about helping people out no matter the cost.

Truthfully, he thinks that Shirou could be a really good Phantom Thief, but something just feels off about him. The way he said those words… are those all there is to it? Does he really mean what he said, or is there something else he didn't tell about justice that he believes in?

Akira's attention is now back to the club.

His eyes quickly wanders all over the place, looking for something.

Nobody is watching him, good.

Carefully, he enters the place without making any noise.

Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the same twin tailed girl is peeking at him from the nearby building.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Joker has decided that this place is a really good place to eat all by himself, so good that someone else has the same idea as he is.

Sitting at the gallery of the archery club is a girl with purple hair, who notices of him entering there as she asks him, "Who might you be?"

"I should be asking you the same question. Should you even be allowed to be in a clubhouse in this hour?"

"I… I am a member of this club. What about you?"

"I-" he doesn't have any comeback for that, "I thought nobody is around here at this moment."

The girl suddenly looks down, "I… I shouldn't be in here too."

He sees how the girl seems to be pained over something unknown, as if she is hiding her true self and those last words she said has a different meaning to it.

Well, this could be a chance for him make some friends. Who knows, maybe there's a Confidant to be found in this world?

"How about this? We could keep this a secret between us."

"S-Sure…" she stares at him for a moment.

Akira goes to sit a bit far from her, as he starts munching onto the food prepared by Tsubasa.

It's quite good. Did she cook this? He should try and ask her later.

Moments later, his head turns back toward the girl, "Akira. Akira Kurusu."

The girl seems startled by him, "I'm sorry?"

"That's my name."

"Ah… so you are the new transfer student my brother spoke about."

"Brother?"

"I'm sorry," she quickly responds to him, "I am Sakura Matou, Shinji's sister."

Hmm….

Kurusu gives off his comment, "That's impossible. You two look nothing alike. Have you seen your brother? He looks like he is made out of seaweed. An annoying one."

A smile somehow appears before her, "Yes… he does looks like one."

"I bet no matter what recipe you tried, he will never taste as good as any other seaweed."

Sakura chuckles a bit, mumbling, "He's just going to be a waste of an ingredient, isn't he?"

"Not even putting tastier seaweeds around him will make it any better. In fact, he's just going to make things worse. So bad that using him is banned in cooking competition."

Sakura chuckles some more.

And thus, they are bonding over seaweed-bashing.

Definitely nothing is harmed in the process of this conversation.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It took them awhile to actually finish the food and gets out of there.

As both of them are out of the club at the same time, they are greeted by a voice that makes them think, 'speaking of the devil'.

"Sakura, I know you are always all over that Emiya, but I didn't know you would feel the same to Kurusu. What kind of a bitch you are?"

Sakura stops on her track, seeing Shinji moving closer to her as she mutters, "N-Nii-san… it's not… I just…"

"Or perhaps you are no longer holds such feeling for him anymore? Then, it should be fine if I told him about us, right?"

"N-nii-san, please don't do that!"

Wha-?

From Akira's point of view, he sees Sakura screaming out in fear. Her face looks horrified and she seems close to tearing up.

Whatever he threatens her with, he knows that is something she prefers to keep a secret about.

Ti must be truly horrifying secret that she seems desperate to not even know of this.

"You!"

!?

This guy is now pointing his finger Akira. What does he wants now?

"How about I tell you about us siblings instead? You are not Emiya, obviously you should be fine keeping this secret with me. Of course, you may no longer yourself if you hear this out."

"Nii-san!"

This guy… if he has a Palace, there is no way it would be shocking. There is no way an asshole like this only stays in Mementos…

Kurusu opens up his mouth, "I would love to hear a secret. Everyone would feel such thing about a secret."

Sakura now turns toward him, "K-Kurusu-senpai?"

"But are you sure you want to do that? You may hurt your own sister with that secret of yours, but then nobody will like you, that's for sure. Not even those girls you are flirting with. Not even, say, this girl named Tohsaka."

He remembers his other self's memories. He remembers that in his first day here, this guy was rejected by this person named Tohsaka. He doesn't seem happy from that.

Akira now moves closer to him, his eyes deeply stare into his, "That's a great thing about a secret. Both the owner and the secret keeper are affected by the consequences of breaking that one secret."

That's not quite true, but he seems to be not bright enough to know this bluff.

Shinji looks really pissed and now turning back toward Sakura, who immediately looks downward as he walks away from there.

Akira turns to see the violet-haired girl, holding her hands together as if she accepts something that is about to come to her. Is her brother hit her a lot? Did he humiliate her a lot? Is that the secret she holds dear about?

Nah, it's a bad thing to pry open on someone else's Pandora's Box.

"If you want someone to talk to, I am always around for that. You shouldn't be carrying a terrible secret all by yourself. It really hurts the more you keep it to yourself."

The girl pulls herself up, startled by his words, only to see him giving a faint smile at her, "Don't worry, I keep so many secrets, I barely remember which is which."

Still not true, but if she takes this bluff, she could at least feel better about something.

Now, he would like to try something out.

Pulling out his phone, he sees the icon for the Metaverse is still around.

Why isn't he is surprised by that? Oh yeah, summoning a Persona is possible here, so why not carry the app around.

Pressing the app, he sees that it functioning well like always.

Let's see…

"Shinji Matou."

 _CANDIDATE FOUND._

Sakura just stares at him as she hears a voice coming from the phone.

Just what is he doing there?

"School."

 _CANDIDATE FOUND._

Thought so, Akira though. The guy is making it easy to know the location. He is like Kamoshida; carelessly showing their emotion of something they hold dear.

The only problem is to learn what does he think his school is.

He then turns toward the girl beside him, "Your brother isn't a very nice person, yet Emiya is really adamant of calling him a friend."

"They used to be friends, but nii-san… he's… our family…"

She stops herself there, making him wondering what else she would say afterward.

"Well, no time for that," he mutters, "Break's over. Don't worry, I'll make sure to stop your brother from doing anything like that."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Finally, after going through some more studies, the school ends.

It seems Shinji is the first one to pack his stuff, looks like he is hurrying himself to get out from that class, even ignoring some of the girls around him.

He also turns toward him and Shirou before walking out through the door, speaking toward them all, "Just make sure you two didn't get home late again. There's going to be a really good sculpture if you do."

With that stupid smile of his, he simply walks away, leaving a really strange, absurd and oddly specific statement for the two.

He now turns toward Shirou, "Cleaning something else today?"

"No, I'm just going to straight to home today. I already promised that it is my turn to cook dinner tonight. Besides, my parents are finally coming home for a vacation."

"Sounds good. I'd rather not see any sculpture tomorrow. Who knows what kind of art Shinji wanted to show us?"

With the two now moving far off from each other, Akira decides to stay near the gate, waiting off for the students to not flock around there anymore.

If the Palace is the school itself, then the entrance should be the gate. It is better not to jump into the Palace when the destination is not very clear.

Always use the door to enter a huge place with enemies around. That's simply Manners 101.

Still, he needs to figure out the third keyword for the palace or it won't open for him at all.

Usually the team does the thinking and he just stands around being silent and stuff. His friends just love talking that they contribute 90% of the conversation.

Now, he will have to do it all alone.

Well, better not have others involve with this.

Let's see…

A Treasure holds the Palace's existence, and it seems both of them will correlate with each other in term of theme naming. Does that mean Palaces are created with the Treasure in mind?

It could be, seeing that a Treasure may have been something that turns someone into what they are. Kamoshida's glory as an athlete is what turns him into what he was. Same goes for Madarame and his student's talent, Kaneshiro's obsession with money and Okumura's poor childhood.

That said, no doubt Shinji's Treasure and Palace is the same thing.

Sakura did mention something about their family. Is there something he hates about his family? What teens like him usually wish to do to their family? Something about the family that changes him as a person?

Did he received and order or something from his family? But why school? Why not his own house?

Maybe he uses the school to vent his frustration on something? Something about the family?

Hmm…

Well, Akira may be spitballing here, but he might as well try it out.

"Shinji Matou's house."

 _CANDIDATE FOUND._

Owh? His home IS his Palace? What is so special about his house that he sees his school as such?

Might as well take a look at it.

The air around him started to rippling of black and red, and the sky is now darkening.

He has arrived in the Metaverse.

"K-Kurusu senpai, what is this place?"

!?

Oh crap!

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sakura walks out of the school's building, looking down as usual. There is no club for today so she has no reason to stick around any longer.

In truth, she wishes that she didn't need to return home this quick. That house is a hell for her.

She never calls this place her home. That house is never a place for her to treat like one.

Not to mention, with the way her brother acted today, she afraid he is going to do _that_ again tonight. She always uses club as a way to not be in that house for that reason.

But today…

Maybe she could stick around with Shirou-senpai?

No… he said that his parents are finally returning home. There's no way she is even invited for that occasion…

Ah, Kurusu-senpai is there.

Is her waiting for her? Maybe he's waiting for her brother instead?

He said he's going to change her brother.

!?

Is he going to fight him? No! That's too dangerous!

Kurusu-senpai is going to be dead! Her brother is going to summon her to kill him!

She needs to stop him from doing that!

He is one of those people nice to her. She doesn't want to lose a friend like that!

"Shinji Matou's house."

 _CANDIDATE FOUND._

Wha-? It's that voice again!

What were he doing with that phone? What is he trying to pull off exactly?

!?

The sky turns… dark? Already?

Sakura keeps on looking all over the place. She feels really confused right now.

It's evening, but not even close to dusk, but now…

Wait….

WAIT….

Why is her house stands there, right at where the school is supposed to be?

This place… feels like…

Wait, is this… Reality Marble?

"K-Kurusu-senpai, what is this place?

She turns to see Akira in shock, muttering, "Sakura, you're not supposed to be here right now…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wha-!?"

A girl with twin tails quickly run forward toward the gate, looking around as she mutters, "Where are they!? Where did they disappear to? What's just going on!?"

She's not the only one who's confused.

Somewhere at the entrance of the school building, Tsubasa just stands there, gasping in shock, "Wha- He just-"

And outside of the school, Ruler simply stares at the gate, muttering, "He uses his Noble Phantasm on broad daylight?"

 **I guess someone has influenced Akira badly in term of fucking things up.**

 **So, the new stats…**

 **True Name:** Akira Kurusu  
 **Alignment:** Trickster Neutral

 **Strength:**? **  
Endurance:**? **  
Agility:**? **  
Mana:**? **  
Luck:**?

(Stats subjected to Persona)

 **Skills:**

Persona Magic: A+

Presence Concealment: B+

Third Eye: A+

Eye of the Mind (False): B

 **Noble Phantasm:**

The Mask of Oneself: Persona Summoning: E – A+

Dimension of Desires: Metaverse: A++

Stealing One's Heart: Treasure Theft: A

?: EX

 **As you can see, all stats are now ?, because in Persona, stats are based on Persona, thus why Joker and those before him keeps on fusing for better ones. Unless you are like me; fusing Persona just to get those lovely or badass looking Persona.**

 **I will have to say this again, and here I hope you guys actually read this, because then you have no excuse for screaming at me for somehow giving Akira tarot-based servant class.**

 **Akira DID NOT gets into the world of F/SN. He goes into the world MASHUP for both Nasuverse and SMT-verse. We do not use Nasu-only rules for anything. We use both of them.**

 **It's just so happen that this story takes place in Fuyuki, because why not? Who knows? Maybe I decided to switch location to Tokyo instead? Or Trifas? Or Ylisse, somehow… who knows?**

 **Let's talk about Confidant. If Sakura is a Confidant, which arcana do you think she is? (This is merely a discussion, answers may not be put into the story)**

 **No, I'm not making Akira/Sakura pairing here. I still don't know if I'm going to do pairing or not, or if he is already dating someone prior to the story or not. But I will definitely take the Valentine scene as canon. That is way too funny to ignore.**

 **Again, I still need suggestions of Masters and Servants, not Servants only. The HGW is still going to happen regardless Akira goes to Palace or not. In fact, some of those Masters and Servants can be a potential for future Palaces so pick your poison well.**

 **Again, it can be anybody from Nasuverse and SMT-verse. For those who are asking, it's Greater Grail War, so 7 vs 7. The spot of 1 Saber, 1 Archer, 1 Lancer and 1 Rider has already been fulfilled.**

 **Next: The meeting of Masters of Blue. Also, Palace exploring.**


	3. Matou Residence

Matou Residence

"K-Kurusu-senpai, what is this place?"

Sakura turns to stare at him. She seems to be really demanding for an answer.

"Sakura, you're not supposed to be here right now…"

"Senpai… what is this place?" she slowly moves close to him, "We were at school just now. How do we get here?"

"I… em…"

Using my smartphone!

That's not a very good response…

"This is my home!"

Sakura screams out at him, "How is my house here? How did we get here? What did you do!?"

She keeps on looking all over the place, before turning back toward him, "Senpai… are you… are you a magus?"

No?

"Sure… you can consider me one…"

Technically he's a Servant… but he can also use magic…

Is he considered a magus too here?

"But," Akira grabs her shoulders, making her stop speaking, "You are not supposed to be in here right now, so I'll be sending you home today, okay?"

"But-"

"No but. Let's just go home for now."

She slowly nods, as he now letting her go.

!?

Nope, she actually runs into the building, startling him.

"S-Sakura!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

What kind of place is this?

This place looks like her home, the Matou's mansion, but it feels really different.

No, it IS different!

From the outside, it does looks like the house she lives in, but the inside is so much different.

The moment she opens up the front door, instead of seeing the normal pathway leading to the living room like all house in Japan do, she found herself standing before a huge stair that connects the ground floor and the upper level of the home.

This feels more like a rich guy's mansion. Her home is a big, but not this big.

The walls then caught her eyes.

Pictures of her brother are all over the wall. Some shows him standing in a proud manner. Some shows him engaging in various activities.

It is as if Shinji is an important figure here.

But he's not. He is… he is… he is a pitiful one…

"M-Mistress?"

Wh-?

Who are these people!?

As soon as the purple-haired girl turns around to answer the call of the unknown, what she sees instead is a group of people in suspicious looking robes and hats.

It's like she's looking at a group of medieval magus from the folklores!

Not to mention, underneath those hats are nothing but black faces and red eyes, staring straight at her.

They seem to be showing some sort of confusion toward her.

"Mistress Sakura, what are you doing outside?" one of these strange people asking her.

Sakura's confusion and shock increases even more. How on earth these people know her name?

She is speechless. What is she supposed to say in this situation? She didn't even know where she is right now.

"I- I'm lost…" is what she can come up with.

Maybe they can show her the way around the place?

Instead of being told where she is right now, these people decided to grab her hands, "Come, let us show you to your room."

These people… they are holding her hands quite tightly. They are being too rough at her, pulling her around forcefully like that.

These strangers bring her toward an entrance of a room somewhere on the ground floor, with one of them kindly opens up the door.

"Now, we have arrived inside your room."

Those people then pushes her in, closing the door tightly.

Th-

This is not her room!

This is the basement!

Her eyes widen, looking the inside of the room.

Right at the front, there are steps moving downward. There is a huge heart-shaped bed in the middle of it and the walls are filled with holes around them. The walls are all pink around it. There's even veil on the ceiling and the top of the bed and some sort of strange aroma can be smelt in there.

This is the basement she hates so much from Matou Residence; the interior may have been different, but this is pretty much that basement!

What on earth is going on here!?

"Ara~, you are not Master. Who are you supposed to be?"

Wh- who is she?

Appearing out from the corner, Sakura sees somebody within blue lingerie underneath transparent clothing peering close toward her, grinning with her yellow eyes starring deep into her, "My, what are you supposed to be? Are you another toy for my Master to play with?"

P-play? Wh-what is she talking about?

More importantly, who is she!?

She looks like her, but those eyes give off different feelings.

Sakura goes to look around as she hears noises coming out from the holes on the walls.

Fear flowing inside her head.

Worms jumping out from those holes, wiggling slowly toward that obscene look-alike, with the mirror image simply petting onto the worms, treating them like pets.

Strange sensation appears inside her lower region, as Sakura falls onto the floor, writhing in pain.

"What, don't tell me you have never seen of the Crest Worms? All toys should know them. After all, master loves this kind of play," the fake Sakura smirks at her reaction, "How can you make Master Shinji feels even remotely as good if you have no idea how to have fun with them?"

Master Shinji?

This… this woman views her brother… as her master?

What kind of place is this?

"SAKURA!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Wow, this is indeed a Palace.

There is no way any parents would just put repeated pictures of their son on the walls like some sort of yandere shrine. Not when you have a daughter living inside the same home.

Also, his clothes is now his Phantom Thief's outfit; a clear indication of being in a Palace.

Akira just finished defeating two Shadows near the front door, and he stops for a moment to see how Shinji views himself here.

This guy is like Kamoshida, except Shinji seems to have this strange obsession of showing off what his achievement. This guy makes Kamoshida looks like a humble guy.

At least that guy did not walk around screaming, "I AM A GOLD MEDALIST ATHLETE!"

Though, most of those pictures seem to be taller than what Shinji's height is supposed to be. Did he has some sort of height complex?

That's impossible; he is neither tall nor he is short.

Possibly… those images are what he wishes to be? Some of those pictures show him do something really strange for a student to do, like stabbing a tiger, or exploding something with magic.

There's also a picture of him with half-naked ladies… and one of them is his… sister…

Owh…

Wait, what is he doing here!? Sakura is in trouble right now!

Running forward and finally open up the door those two Shadows may have come from, he now enters a really strange huge room.

This place, which seems like a basement, is definitely trypophobia's sufferer's worse nightmare. Not to mention, those worms are just too eerie.

Owh, Sakura is there… Two of her infact.

"Sakura!" he calls out to her, running toward her and quickly stands before her.

It's easy to know which one is which. Based on her shy attitude, there is no way she will flaunts her lovely figure in that sexy outfit. Also, nobody pets a strangely-looking phallic-like worm in real life.

Definitely.

Not when her first reaction of seeing him is, "My, an intruder of master's Room of Pleasure? Are you perhaps wishing to have fun with me as well?"

"S-senpai…" Sakura pulls her head toward him, "What is this place…"

"This is your brother's Palace. This is how he views the school."

"P-Palace?" confusion seems to be clogging her brain right now.

Akira now pulls out a gun toward the yellow-eyed Sakura, "And that is how he sees you, as a lovesick servant apparently."

"Wh-no…" she whimpers, "I am not…"

Cognitive Sakura chuckles, mumbling, "I am no mere servant, intruder. I am Master Shinji's divine harlot. I fulfill his need when he needs it the most. I provide a moment of peace for him. I'll do everything for my own beloved master."

The real Sakura, on the other hand, mumbles, "I… I am not like that… I just… I just want my brother to be happy… he… he is a pitiful one…"

"Whatever, let's just get out of here first!"

Akira tries pulling her up and quickly runs out of there, but…

"What do we have here?"

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Before the two, near the door, stands a man in a black suit stands before them, grinning at the two's sight, "Have you come here to indulge yourself within my special room?"

Cognitive Sakura seems to be overexcited by his presence, "Ah~, my master! Have you come to vent your frustration in me again? Please, do me as you please, like you always do. After all, a Wizard Marshall like you surely needs a time for himself."

"Fru-" the real Sakura is choking up, hearing this, "I… I do not want you to…"

Cognitive Shinji now steps downward, closing in toward the two, muttering toward them, "What about you two? Are you here to provide me the same entertainment? I do not play with boys, but a lady like you perhaps…"

Sakura can feels a strong glare toward her coming from her brother's mirror image, now hearing him whispering, "I can show you what you need in your life. All you need to do is to submit yourself to me."

Wha-

Is this… is this really how he sees her? As a servant for his… for his own pleasure?

What she did all this time… is not making him feel better of himself?

Sakura thought she was being nice to him this whole time, after all, he is not the one selected as their family's heir. After all, he can never be a magus as good as their grandfather.

Feeling sorry, she let him do whatever he pleases with herself. Maybe that way he won't feel bad for himself.

Is it not worth it? Is she just doing something stupid this whole time?

The harlot suddenly interrupts her mind, "If you want to have fun with that girl, what about me? Can I have that boy for myself?"

Shinji snickers, "Do whatever you wish. Your boy toy, Emiya couldn't even please you like I did. Look at him, rotten in the corner."

Her face quickly turn to the side-

Ah!

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

!

Akira widens his eyes.

At the corner of the room, a red-haired figure in janitor outfit is seen rotting, with the worms eating him alive. His eyes look so empty that he barely reacts.

Wha- he sees Shirou as…

That guy even calls him his friend, and he sees him as…

Sakura looks like she just could accept the view. She is already fallen once more on the floor, this time sobbing with tears out from her eyes.

He really need to tell her about the whole 'cognitive' thing after this…

But more importantly, they need to get out of there fast!

CLICK!

BANG! BANG!

Shinji is startled by his shot, nearly falls of onto the floor as he glares at his assailant, "You… you dare attack me? You dare attacking the strongest magus himself? The future winner of the Holy Grail War? You should kneel before me if you wish to live longer!"

Akira glares at him, with his pistol still aims at him, "No. I'm here to save a friend of mine, and you are on my way."

"So be it," Shinji now stands up straight, "Lancer!"

He quickly jumps away, pushing Sakura off from their spot, evading chains near them.

(Un)fortunately, some of the worms get hit by the chains instead, squishing into a pool of blood before having their remain slowly greying and hardening, as if they have become a stone.

Akira quickly pulls himself up, "What kind of-"

But quickly pulling his knife, deflecting an attack from a scythe with smaller blade, held by a woman with long purple hair wearing a black hood.

The woman gives him a dangerous smile, "Hoh, your ability is good for a human. You will make a really good sculpture."

This woman is really strong. With their weapon locks in a struggle, she is still able to push him backward.

This woman… he can feel that she is a cognition of something inhuman… a Servant perhaps?

A Servant can also has a cognition within a Palace? That will be something to note for in the future.

But first…

 _"Trickster, do not stare into her eyes,_ " Arsene warns him as he quickly jumps himself off from her.

Still with her smile, Lancer's hair is thrown and turning into snakes and later chains from before as he ducks away, dodging the hair as it stuck on the wall behind him.

She throws some more, trapping him with the walls of chains.

The chains now moving by themselves, flying toward him and ready to pounce onto him.

A god for a god!

 **"Anubis!"**

The jackal-headed underworld god holding a scale appears before him, shooting out curses onto the chains, making them falls onto the floor.

Those chains must have been treated like living beings for them to actually feeling the effect of the attack.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Se-senpai…"

In her eyes, Kurusu-senpai is no longer an ordinary senpai before her.

Is he a Master for the grail war? He seems to have summoned what could be said as a Servant defending him.

But that Servant looks like Anubis, Egyptian god. He even calls him that.

A god shouldn't be able to be summoned as one, right?

She hears another from him, **"Ose!"**

Now Anubis disappears and a leopard man with two blades appears.

Two Servants!?

Too bad she isn't too focus on the fight between Lancer and her senior's Servant.

Her eyes are back toward her own favorite senpai's blank-looking body.

The other her approaches her, whispering close to her as she hugs her from behind, "You are attracted to this useless fool? He is a sad figure. He calls himself a hero and he can't even help himself out."

She… what is she…

"You should see his reaction when I told him how good my master is. He is filled with despair and hatred as I pin him on the bed, taking his life away from him~…"

 _"Would you let yourself be toyed by this imitation!?"_

A… a voice…

Ah~! Her head hurts!

" _Your love for him… is this all you have? Everything you did all this time… how can it be stomped into this pitiful state? Where is your resolve this whole time!?"_

Her… resolve?

Yeah… her resolve…

She lives day by day inside this hell hole for the day when she can be together with her beloved, as promised. She even stops herself from confessing so that he won't be worried for what her brother did to her.

Her brother just threatened her to spill the secret onto him so that this will happen?

LIKE HELL SHE WILL LET HIM DO THAT!

NO MORE!

 _"Then, I am thou, thou art I. Let your desire trapped no longer, and free it away from those who bind it in the shackle!"_

Elbowing the cognition off, she found a purple blindfold around her eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That Servant is no joke.

Ose, after so many buffs, still not hurting her much, thanks to her snake hairs and her eyes.

 _"Trickster, you won't be alone in this endeavor. Look!"_

Hearing his Persona's word, he quickly turns around, seeing Sakura standing up with the purple blindfold around her.

She walks forward as if she can see through the blindfold, and slowly grabbing the blindfold and peels it off after some struggle.

Blood spill off from her eyes as she screams out loud.

Behind her, a purple-haired female figure in provocative white clothing with claws as hands, a huge snake as her tail, a pair of wings and a golden blindfold around her eyes appear floating.

Her clothes even changed, as she now wears a black skin tight outfit with black skit and purple lines all around her. Her eyes are now burning with blue flames.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Wha- what kind of magecraft is that!?" Shinji screams out in horror, "You two some weird magecraft here and there… are you trying to usurp my throne!? Everyone, kill them!"

Lancer now jumps off from the two, regrouping with two mages who slowly turning into two huge Slimes.

Sakura steps forward, moving close to Akira as she screams out at them, "Move, you disgusting creatures! **Gorgon, destroy all of them!** "

Both Ose and the newly formed Persona, Gorgon charge forward toward the enemies.

Ose quickly find himself surrounded by the slimes, getting himself occupied with the two Shadows while Gorgon goes to fight off Lancer.

"An impossibility…" Lancer mutters, looking at Gorgon as she goes to dodge the huge snake tail away, looking how her snakes are crushed even before they turn into chains.

Gorgon simply smirks at her, throwing a light spell at her as she is thrown off balance.

"Kill her, Lancer!" Shinji screams out in fear, "Do whatever you can to kill her! I'll allow everything!"

"Everything, you say?" the female now stands up, twirling her scythe around as she mutters, "Then, I shall drain your mana a bit for this…"

Lancer then charges forward, throwing her chains that are being evaded by Gorgon, who flies upward as she goes for an attack with her scythe, but got caught up by the Persona's hands instead.

 **"Cybele,"** she mutters, charging a beam formed around her eyes.

But then she is shot off from her enemy by a black beam, falling off onto the land on her feet with Gorgon flies back to her summoner.

Sakura now points her fingers, mumbling, "I… I never thought Gandr is a lot harder to do than it looks…"

"Neat range attack," Akira speaks up to her, shooting down slime as he jumps forward.

He brandishes his knife, striking down the slimes rapidly, making the two shoot out black blood out from their being as he stands with his back facing them.

Kurusu then turns to look at Sakura, "We shouldn't waste any more time."

Matou nods, now calling out to her Persona, "Gorgon, use Cybele!"

Lancer is startled by her word, now seeing Gorgon flies forward, shooting out her own eye beam toward her, forcing her to jump away as she keeps on shooting around.

Shinji quickly jumps down from the stair down into the basement to get away from the beam. Sadly, his hand isn't very lucky.

"M-My hand!" he screams out, laying down there as he holds onto his hand, which is now turning grey.

Akira quickly jumps forward, shooting Lancer off from them as the two regroup, running forward toward the door above.

Not wasting any more time, they move on and out from the door, leaving the mansion as quickly as possible with Akira turning off the app.

The two are back inside their school outfit, as Sakura looks around clueless, seeing her front, "We are… back in school…"

She breathes heavily, with sweats all over her body as she mumbles, "Senpai… what was that just now? Did I… Did I summoned another Servant?"

Another?

"I… I just did… I…"

"Let's go home first," the trickster stands up, offering his hand toward her, "You can stay in my home tonight. I'm sure it is far too dangerous for you to return home right now."

"I…" she seems hesitate, staring straight at him.

"Don't worry. I'll keep everything happened in there a secret. Besides, now that you have summoned a Persona like I do, there're lots of stuff I need to tell you."

His hand is still offered to her, as she keeps hesitating to accept it.

But then she looks back to the school, remembering everything he may have seen in that strange building and how he, even after knowing a lot, still helping her out from there.

Slowly, she smiles at him, grabbing his hand as he helps her standing up.

"Ah," she somehow slips, quickly being caught by him on his side.

"Easy there. Your body is still adapting with your newfound ability, so you are a bit tired right now. Let's go, I'll cook us dinner tonight."

Sakura is startled by his sudden word, by smiling again as she is being helped in returning home.

The two didn't even realized how a certain blonde figure is staring at them both.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Jeanne stares at the two as they slowly disappear from her sight, now turning back toward the school as she approaches the gate.

"The Fool just did something and disappears along with the girl. It looks like a Reality Marble, but something feels off. What was that just now? What happened in there?"

She keeps on peering on the gate, mumbling, "I can feel a faint of battle happened. It's there, but it's not there…"

The blonde turns back, looking at where the two students had gone to, now whispering to herself, "I may need to ask him myself…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At an airport, two figures are seen walking toward the exit with their briefcases on the trolleys.

One of them is a blonde figure in black suit, while the other one is a white-haired female in white coat.

"Master of Saber, I presume?" a female voice calls her out as she startles, looking to her side alongside the one in suit.

Beside them is a grey-haired man in black coat and a pink-haired woman in blue kimono.

The pink-haired woman bows at the two, muttering, "It is nice to meet you, fellow Servant of Blue. I am Caster of Blue and this is my Master, who is also my father."

"Caster," the grey-haired man mutters, "I've told you before, I am not your father."

"And you still unable to explain his life I detected inside your being. If anything, you are his reincarnation."

The man simply sighs, now turning toward the white-haired woman, "We shall be meeting tonight at the castle nearby, right? Then, please excuse both of us."

He drags his Servant along, pushing his own trolley as the two make ways toward the exit.

"Who is that, Iri?"

The two pair that were left now turning to their back, seeing a man, black haired and in a suit, wondering as she responds, "It's Caster of Blue and her Master."

"I see. We will be meeting tonight at the castle. We should all go and be prepared for everyone's arrival."

 **This chapter ends here.**

 **Anybody that can figure out Caster can automatically figure out her Master (if you know Japanese creation myth, that is)  
Hint: He is a Persona character**

 **Sorry, guys. Never thought I'll be writing a really long scene for the Palace's introduction that the meeting for Masters did not take place here. Maybe next time.**

 **About Sakura and her Persona, I am very sorry if you think I am making original creation for a Persona. Making Original Persona is a lot harder than OC. Besides, Gorgon is already looking inhuman enough to pass off as one.**

 **Sakura's outfit… well… I basically turned her into Sakurider (google it). I was going to turn her into Dark Sakura, but that blindfold just not fit with that outfit. Still not sure about her melee weapon, but Gandr is going to be ranged weapon. I don't think that spell takes tons of prana and well, cognitive Gandr can be a thing…**

 **…pleasedon'tkillme…**

 **Shadow Shinji's outfit is pretty much him in Zelretch outfit. I am bad at description.**

 **If you think Cognitive Sakura is over-sexualized, you must be one of those pleb who didn't watch/read Heaven's Feel yet.**

 **I still need more suggestions for Master-Servant pair up, and it is not necessarily needs to be Palace potential. I just said that if you guys can think of one. Next chapter will be introducing Masters of Blue and their Servants, so I'll be needing suggestions for the Master-Servant pairs because I am truly running out of the idea. Some for the Red team is also very nice.**

 **Positions left for Masters and Servants of Blue are Assassin and Berserker. The Red team still has only Lancer.**

 **Do not complain if you don't like MY choices of Masters and Servants.**

 **Guest: Shinji won't be having a Persona. Do you really want to know what a rapist's Persona looks like? Also, I'm not Shirou is a constant self-depreciation kind of guy. He is more of "I want to be a hero so you should stay put like a damsel in distress, Saber"**

 **Isame Kuroda: Yeah, P5 hero definitely needs more love. About Sakura, she seems more of Strength, considering I pulled her from Heaven's Feel, so her despair is way too much to consider Sun Arcana's upbeat and cheerful characters. What do you think?**

 **deaddragon42: I like your way of thinking**

 **speedy24: Can a demon become a Master, though? Meh, why not?**


	4. Phantom Thieves

Phantom Thieves

(A/N: Before you guys started reading this, kindly ask yourself this question. Should Akira has his DLC Personas, especially his Picaro Personas?)

Rin Tohsaka feels really frustrating this week.

She was visiting her newborn baby cousin in London when she first sees the red lines forming before her very own eyes on the back of her palm.

It is not her father that has been selected to participate in the latest Holy Grail War, but her. It is quite an achievement by itself.

Now she can prove to the whole family that she is capable of becoming the Second Owner for Fuyuki and the heiress of Tohsaka, and this time she will make sure to take back her sister.

This is pretty much her life goal as of now.

She knows how important it is for her father to send her sister away to another family, but for a really long time, she despised her father for that.

She knows that he really thinks about his family's benefit from a magus's standpoint, but she could never agree of that.

If only her father did not follow the old ways so much… her sister won't be looking so miserable as of now…

Imagine the first cause of her frustration when she tries to summon her own Servant.

With the hype surrounding Saber as being called as the strongest Servant class (is what she heard her father spoken about once), she tries so hard to actually do that.

They are unable to procure a catalyst to summon a specific Servant, so she had to settle with the next best thing to summon Saber; summoning at the exact time.

With the occasion of going all over the place, and her hurrying up in returning home, the jetlag she suffered decides to dick around with her sense of time that she missed the timing.

Now she is stuck with an Archer… that fights with two swords.

That's just mocking her now…

At least Archer is very useful, aside from providing name and her constant teasing. She seems to be following orders very easily.

Root knows how hard it is for her if she summoned a really disobedient type of Servant… she may did a big mistake like wasting a Command Spell or something close…

Also, she found an enemy Lancer.

That Lancer is using a green spear and is controlling dogs around him and it seems her Servant can at least match up with his speed.

That's a good thing.

Unfortunately during the process of that battle, a civilian dies after witnessing the fight accidentally.

Rin knows that as a magus, a witness of the moonlit world should be dealt with and execution is almost the perfect solution for that.

But if she is going to defy her father's obsession of living purely like one, then she shouldn't let this poor soul rotting away, especially not when he is Tsubasa's cousin. She'd rather not let a friend cry.

Reviving the man with her magecraft, she forgot to make sure he is safe at home. If Lancer figures out he is still alive, he will surely kill him again.

So she and Archer goes all the way to Tsubasa's home and what did she see?

That man is actually a Master. A Master with TWO Servants!

Because of this revelation, she started spying on him throughout the day.

Who is he, really? Is he the Master of Blue or Red? How did he have two Servants?

At the end of the school day, another source of her frustration comes in.

The man and Sakura just disappear just like that…

Where are they!? What kind of magecraft is that!?

Now she is back at her home, angrily entering the front door to be greeted with her maid.

"Ah, Rin-sama. Welcome home," the red-haired maid bows at her happily as she cleans the hallway.

"I'm home, Kohaku," Rin simply responds as she walks straight to the living room, putting herself onto the couch and sighs.

Archer pops up beside her, chuckling, "Isn't that Master a very interesting one?"

"How so?"

"He is able to see me even when I am in the astral form. Not just sensing me, but really looking at me."

Rin looks away, "And how would you know that?"

"If you just pay attention when he was looking at our direction, you could've realized that his eyes are directly looking at me, as if he knows that I was there. He even looks away the moment my eyes see him."

"Great, we have a Master that is not only has two Servants, but he can also see Servants even when they are in an astral form!" she huffs in anger, sighing.

A tray of teapot and cups are being brought onto a nearby table with Kohaku pours the tea, smiling at her master in wonder, "May I ask what is the source of your anger, Rin-sama?"

Archer sits next to her Master and responds with a smile on her face, "Owh, she's just mad that the Master we are currently investigating just disappeared right in front of her face."

"Really?" the maid seems interested with her words, "Rin-sama, that does not sound like what magus can normally do."

"You're right," the black-haired girl sips her drink, "That kind of magecraft seems to be some form illusion at first, but as soon as we get close to it, it is almost as if he really did disappear just like that. It is as if he just manipulated space or dimension."

"But isn't that kind of magecraft is Kaleidoscope; only used by the Wizard Marshall himself? I thought he never share that with anyone?"

"Eh~?" Archer grins at her, tilting her head playfully, "Kohaku-chan, you are quite knowledgeable about this. Are you sure you are just a maid?"

"N-no…" Kohaku is taken aback by the Servant's reaction, "I just… heard it from Akiha-sama before…"

"No," she shakes her head, "It is impossible to think of that. He has apprentices before, but none of them can even handle his method of teaching that they choose to quit instead of keep pursuing their goal of learning the Second Magic."

Archer is now twirling the cup around her finger, glaring at her, "Surely Kaleidoscope isn't the only space manipulation magecraft around, right? There's bound to be imitation here and there…"

Rin is still drinking her tea as her mind wanders around. Maybe… maybe there is an explanation for what that transfer student did before?

"Ah!"

She suddenly stand up, startling both of the other ladies in the home.

"R-Rin-sama?"

"No way!" she screams out, as if she is having some sort of revelation, "It's impossible, but it's the only explanation we have!"

The silver-haired girl is now mumbling, "What are you thinking about now, Rin?"

"It's that thing, Archer! He is using a forbidden magecraft!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"We're home~!"

A little silver-haired girl runs off from the living room and reaches the front door of the house, greeting a silver-haired woman and a black-haired man before her, "Welcome home, mama, papa!"

She goes to hug the man first, earning a smile from him, "I'm home, Illya."

"Welcome home," Shirou appears toward the door, seemingly wearing an apron around his body.

"Is Shirou cooking today?" the woman looks excited, getting a nod from him as a response.

A white-haired female turns up behind him, sighing, "He really wants cook you guys something that he even forbids me from using my own kitchen."

"It's the other way around, Sella," Illya turns toward her, "You are the one who forbids him from entering the kitchen."

"M-mistress!"

The woman at the door chuckles, "My, my, I really missed this lively home~!"

The women are all entering the house further, leaving the men as the red-haired one quickly runs toward the door, "Let me help with the lug-"

His feet stop.

His eyes are staring straight toward a blonde-haired figure in suit.

The older man notices his reaction, quickly opens up his mouth, "Shirou, this is Saber. She will be staying with us for a while."

"Sa…ber?" his eyes couldn't stop looking at her.

The female in suit bows at him, "Please to be of your acquaintance."

"Y-yeah…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Senpai… was that… a Reality Marble?"

That night, back at the home of Oribe, Sakura just finishes cleaning herself up as she walks out of the bathroom, now asking that question toward Akira, who is making himself busy with curry on the stove.

He turns around toward her, mumbling, "What is that?"

"Senpai…" the purple-haired girl asks another question, "You are a magus, right? Have you ever heard of Reality Marble?"

Akira turns back toward the curry.

In his mind, he is wondering if he should even let her know about his current situation.

He has already reminds himself to tell her the truth, but how far the truth can be told before she decides them as lies?

Maybe he should just tell her bits by bits; just not everything.

"I am not a magus, and I have no idea what is this Reality Marble you are talking about."

"But… just now… we summoned Servants, right?" more confusion is filled inside his junior's head, "You even summoned two… only a magus can summon a Servant…"

"What we summoned is a Persona."

"Persona?"

Akira turns around, looking straight toward her, "Persona is a manifestation of our personality. It is a mask we choose to create in time of helpless and vulnerability. I can summon more than one because I am a Wild Card. Wild Card is a rare type of Persona User whereas others can only summon one."

"What kind of magecraft is that?"

"It is not a magecraft, not in the broader sense. Persona is more… mystical than just taking up a chunk of our prana. I don't have any answer to where Persona came from, other than a place I learned, called as Sea of Souls. Just think of Persona as familiars, except if they are getting stronger, than so do we."

Sakura looks down, now sitting onto the couch, "Then… what was that just now?"

The man moves close to her as he speaks, "We were at a Palace just now. Palace is a manifestation of distortion; some sort of strong corruption within someone's mind on how they see themselves and others. Palace manifests itself in a different dimension called the Metaverse, and can only be accessible by a certain app."

"Like this one?" she shows him the eye symbol app with red background on her phone's screen toward him, "I never installed this app in my phone before, and this thing appears when I took a bath before."

"That's the one. I used the same thing just now and that's how we got there. You won't be able to delete that app at all."

"Then…" she pulls herself up, staring straight toward him, "That house that looks like mine… why is it appear at our school?"

"The location of the Palace is something significant for the Ruler. It is mostly factored on how influential that place is for them. In this case, your brother sees the school as a place where he can do as he pleases. Him seeing his school as his home's leader must have been thanks to whatever he sees himself as."

"I see… that make sense…" the girl mumbles, "My brother… he… he can never be a magus."

As she keeps on speaking, he uses this chance to sit opposite to her, listening to what she has to say.

"I wasn't born as a Matou. My real name is Sakura Tohsaka. I don't know why my father gave me away, but I do know that at that time, Matou family doesn't have a proper heir. My brother, the latest generation they have could not have magical circuit like other magi did. So I was given to them instead."

"Ever since I was little, I was groomed to become the Matou heiress. Those worms back then… they are Crest Worms; Magic Crests made by my grandfather. They dwell inside my body for years by now… Night after night… they crawl themselves all around me. That's what my grandfather called as training."

My god…

Wow…

He knows that a family of magi can be a bit strange from times to times. They sometimes really hate technologies and some of them can go so far as disregarding human lives.

But this one definitely takes the cake.

Makes him wonder if there are other families that see her grandfather as a role model…

Let's hope not.

The girl is still continuing, "When my brother finds out about this, he's… he is so mad… My grandfather told me that the worms give off libido, and that I need to constantly engage in certain activities to keep myself in check. So he told my brother and he takes an advantage on that… I guess he sees me as that person in that Palace thanks to that…"

Owh… that part…

Let's hope Kamoshida of this world did not learn of that. He is going to see her grandfather as a god…

Kamoshida… wonder what happened to Ann of this world? Let's hope nothing bad happened to her.

But to think that someone would stoop so low as to hurt their own siblings for something like that in this kind of way… It's like the moonlit world is no different than normal human.

They hurt each other. They killed each other. They used each other for their own gain.

He has been wondering this, but if this world can summon heroes with magic and stuff, why aren't they able to stop the world from destruction?

Guess this is the answer.

Akira looks around the house. He is deciding whether he should tell her of this or not. This will be the crucial part of being a Persona User in the Metaverse and he does not want to give this information away.

If his ability of summoning the Metaverse is regarded as his Noble Phantasm, then telling it away won't be a good thing, no?

But being inside a Palace of someone related to what magus's business is, like being part of the grail war may have been a bit different than what he is expected.

The appearance of a cognition version of a Servant really does amp up the difficulties. It could have been because of how inhumanly strong Servants are or if he is still gaining all of his abilities from his worlds, but he alone couldn't steal the Treasure, let alone exploring the whole place.

Still, asking her to do this job…

"Let me help, Senpai…"

!?

The girl is now leaning forward toward him, "Senpai, what you are doing back then, let me help."

"Why would you-"

"You are trying to do something in there. You tried to help me, right? He wanted to expose my secret, so you go to the… Metaverse to help me, right?"

He nods, "All of the Rulers of Palaces all have something in common; a Treasure."

"Treasure?"

"A Treasure in a Palace is akin to something that creates the Palace in the first place. It could be a driving force of a Ruler's desire, or something that changed a Ruler into what he is today. Taking that thing away from the Palace will collapse the building, and in the real world that person will have a change of heart."

He continues, seeing how she is really intent on hearing him out, "He will turn over a new leaf. He may expose all of his wrongdoing, but he will no longer be able to do the same thing again. His head will feel with guilt if he ever tried to do that again, at least that's what I believe so. I never seen the same Palace materialize again."

"Expose…" Sakura steps back, hearing the word as her hand starts shaking.

"Don't worry," he quickly mutters, "I know a friend who was raped by someone and nobody ever speaks of her badly. People will only talk about your brother and how bad he is. Even if they see you negatively, I won't be doing the same. Trust me."

The purple-haired girl just stares at him for a moment, before nodding slowly.

The two suddenly heard of noises coming from the front door.

"Tsubasa, did you smell something nice today?"

"Ah, it must be Kurusu-san's curry again! His curry is so good! You should try it, nee-san!"

"Really? Then I can't wait for that."

Tsubasa and an older woman walk into the living room, noticing the two sitting on the couches.

Akira sees the older woman and is quickly being reminded of who she is; Tsubasa's older sister and an apparent bread winner of this household, Ayaha Oribe. It seems she is working in a company called Fortuna, and it is the same place Tsubasa works is, whatever that work is supposed to be.

"I didn't know we have a guest today," Ayaha gives them a smile, commenting on the view she is looking at.

Tsubasa seems really startled, looking at her, "That's Sakura Matou, right? She's a member of Archery Club. Rin and Ayako talk about you a lot."

A word piques the interest of the youngest one, "Tohsaka-senpai spoke about me?"

"Yeah, she was wondering if you and your brother are siblings and she even said that it would be better if her family adopts you instead of just living with that 'seaweed experiment gone wrong', whatever she meant with that last one."

Sakura now forms a faint smile, only noticeable by Akira.

He quickly stands up, speaking up toward the two, "She fought with her family just now, so she ran out of her home. Can she stay with us for tonight?"

The two women are now looking at each other before nodding as the younger one among them responds with, "Sure! This place has too many rooms after all."

Hmm…

Something suddenly appears inside his head.

This house that looks like a generic old Japanese house is way too big and seems to be way too special for the Oribe siblings to just found one.

"Ayaha-san," Kurusu turns to ask the older one as the two female students are now walking away from there and goes to see various parts of the house.

"What is it, Akira-kun?"

"Where did you find this home? Didn't you just get transferred here? How is it that you found this place easily? It looks rare to be called a normal house…"

Ayaha suddenly chuckles as she mumbles, "I was wonder why aren't you asking about this place. You didn't say anything the first time you arrived here. My friend told me about a family who wants to rent out this home because they are going to stay in a different house around here so we do just that."

"Who would give away this perfectly good cultural-looking house?"

Feels like Yusuke will make this place his personal 'Palace'. He is going to be pissed if he heard about this place.

"He goes by the name Emiya. Kiritsugu Emiya. Nice man, but he seems not too keen on speaking to just anybody. I spoke to his wife on the phone instead, though she seems clueless about a lot of stuff. They are not here at this moment."

Emiya? Does this guy have anything to do with Shirou?

Owh, the curry is already close to eruption…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Welcome to the Velvet Room."

Ah, it's Igor again.

Lavenza smiles at him as she mutters, "How is your journey in the other world? You should be thankful to our Master for giving you an opportunity as such. It is risky for us to even meet at this moment."

"Risky?"

Igor responds toward his confusion, "Two realms, having one part of them merged with each other when it is quite impossible for that to happen in the first place, has created something close to duplicates. These two realms each have a concept of their own, and when both concepts meet up, each one try to overtaking the other. The realm of magi and the realm of shadows are not meant to see one another."

"Is that why Sakura gains the ability to summon a Persona? She is from a family of magi, so that means she is not from our part of the world."

"Indeed it is," the little girl nods, "You can also learn magecraft from them, but with what you can do right now, that would be unnecessary."

"Correct," Akira nods, "Living as a magus means you are close to death. I may sometime overuse magic from my Persona, but not once did I ever felt like I'm dying."

He suddenly wonders something, "Wait, what about Yaldaboath? Is there him in this world too?"

"I am afraid we couldn't determine that," the long-nosed man speaks up, "The state of this new world is confusing even for me. The driving force of that world is undetermined. What I could say is that as the world is unable to pick either Root or Axiom as their pantheism force, the world ended up creating duplicates of information within that world. At some point you may see another me, or my superior, Philemon, or even Gaia or Alaya, but they are definitely not what we are originally."

"I don't get it."

Lavenza mutters, "Unfortunately neither do we are able to determine what that world really has become. It is why we employ you in the first place as both our Wild Card and our Servant."

She continues, "You are a Fool-class Servant. You are now representing both realms. As a Fool, you are being given a freedom that should be considered a skill by other Servants to investigate the cause of the future destruction of both realms."

"As such, it is possible that even in this new world you will be having allies along the way. Such is how a Wild Card lives."

Igor suddenly mentions, "Then, we shall end this conversation today. We will meet you again soon."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akira wakes up the next morning early, preparing himself as he now walks toward the living room, seeing Ayaha preparing something at the kitchen.

Hmm? Sakura is there as well…

"You don't need to do all of this, Sakura-chan," Ayaha looks at her with some worries in her eyes, "You are our guest after all."

"It's fine. I am used to all of this. I am usually the one that does all the cooking at my home. I also helped out at a senior's house most of the time."

"Owh?" the older girl's heard something interesting, "A boyfriend?"

Sakura quickly blushes red, "N-no! He's… he's a friend."

"But you helped out in his home a lot?"

"Yeah…"

"He must be really dense then."

"Well… he is kinda…"

"Nee-san!" Tsubasa walks into the room, already in her school uniform as she seems angered at her sister, "Stop teasing Sakura-chan so much!"

Akira just chuckles, looking at the three as he now turns his attention toward the television.

Whatever happens in this world today? He would like to know that. A piece of news would be of great help.

"A school in Tokyo has faced two horrifying incidents yesterday morning as one of the students of Shuujin Academy attempted a suicide and a teacher was found dead on his desk. The student Shiho Suzui was seen jumping off from the rooftop toward the school yard and several moments after that, Suguru Kamoshida was seen having a heart attack and mysteriously having his eyes turning white while black goo coming out from his eyes."

"Several minutes before his demise, Kamoshida admitted to have been physically abusing the students and sexually assaulted Suzui repeatedly."

"The same disease, dubbed Mental Shutdown by some, was also happened similarly to a political figure, Masayoshi Shidou, who admitted of murder and bribery and a police officer, Tohru Adachi, who admitted of murder and attempted kidnapping several days ago."

"The student is now in coma and is receiving a care at the nearest hospital. Further investigation regarding the Mental Shutdown-"

*switch*

Akira startled by Tsubasa's presence, who looks sad for some reason as she is heard mumbling, "The same thing happened to that cameraman…"

She is suddenly snapped back to reality before turning toward her cousin, "Come, we should have breakfast before we go to school."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Strange…"

"What now?"

Shinji is preparing to go to his school when he heard his corpse-looking grandfather mumbling and looking bothered by something.

"Your sister… there's something strange with her…"

The blue-haired guy snickers, "Strange? What is so strange about that bitch?"

"Is there anything different about Sakura yesterday?"

"Different?" Shinji wonders for a moment, "Not really. She's being as sad as she always is. Owh, yeah. She has found a new boy toy, apparently. That slut must have stayed a night with him yesterday."

"New boy?" his grandfather wonders, "She's not with Emiya anymore?"

"Nope. She's with this transfer student, Akira Kurusu."

"Interesting…"

"If there is nothing else, I should get going now…"

The old man gives off a creepy smile as he speaks up, "Don't forget to go to the Einzbern Castle this evening. There will be a meeting between Masters of Blue."

"I got it! It's not like I need those losers' helps in the first place…"

"Don't be a fool, Shinji. Ignorance will definitely kill you."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Mental Shutdown…

If what Igor said is true, then there is no reason to not believe that these cases caused by a fellow Persona user, most likely Goro Akechi of this world. He may also have the Psychotic Breakdown inducing ability as well.

But Shidou and Kamoshida… they shouldn't be having a shutdown if he were to go with that logic.

If he is now in Kyushu instead of Tokyo, then all of his friends are just strangers to each other. Everyone will have their lives as if they are untouched by anything.

The same goes for those they reformed before.

Kamoshida should still be a creepy teacher like he used to. Shidou should be two-faced like always.

But now they are downed earlier, how? Doesn't seem like having magi in this world will affect the two.

Maybe this is why he was called here instead of someone else? Maybe this change in pattern would be a lead for him to find the truth?

"Senpai!"

Ah, now he has gone back to the reality.

It seems Sakura, who has been walking by his side toward the school, looks really pissed at him, "Senpai, weren't you listening?"

"N-no… I was just thinking about something else… What was it again?"

She takes a deep breath as she mutters, "I was asking, how do we change my brother's heart?"

Ah, he forgot that she is a beginner in this line of work.

"I told you yesterday; we are going to steal his Treasure this week. To do so, we are going to venture deep into his Palace and secure an escape route so that when we steal the Treasure, we won't get lost. Palace can be really tricky to navigate. After we secure the route, we should send a card telling him that we are going to steal something important to him. This will make him wary of us and thus, putting us on high alert. At that point, the Treasure will finally show itself up. Then we can go and steal it from him."

The female student is now lost in thought, "That… sounds like how that thief from that one anime I saw once; the one about a detective turned into a child... sounds like how he works…"

"That's just how us Phantom Thieves work."

The girl suddenly stops moving, startling him, "What is it?"

She stares at him for a moment, "First, a hero. Now, a phantom thief? Does all the boys act like characters from fictions?"

"Hey, at least mine is real."

Sakura chuckles for a moment, before taking a deep breath, "Then, when should we explore the Palace?"

"This evening should do it. If nothing else stopping us, we should be able to give him the calling card tomorrow morning."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That evening, at a really huge castle somewhere inside a nearby forest, a pair of people are now standing around, looking nervously as their heads keep turning toward whatever direction they can see, at least one of them.

One of them, the blonde in suit, simply standing in one place, looking proud with no need to look cautiously all over the place like the woman in white does.

Inside a room in the castle, this scene is being watched by Kiritsugu Emiya, a known Magus Killer who is a mercenary, currently employed by the Clock Tower.

This isn't the first grail war joined by him, even if the previous one was short lived.

10 years ago, the fourth Holy Grail War is supposed to happen in this exact place and he was employed by the family of his wife, the Einzbern family, who is also in charge of the grail war, to participate in the war itself as their representative.

Unfortunately someone activated the Greater Grail itself way too early and in all confusion, managed of being stolen by an unknown third party.

That happened right after the defeat of the previous Caster.

Kiritsugu managed to use that confusion to bring his wife, his daughter and two maids to stay with him and his adopted son here in Fuyuki.

Of course, the Einzbern aren't taking too well of his action. It seems they were trying to groom Illya into a Lesser Grail, even preparing a catalyst of their own.

Before this new war, he works with his wife and a friend of him all around the world, trying to get rid of any of the Einzbern, away from others for their safety.

Now, he is being paid by the Clock Tower to figure out the main culprit of the theft of the grail and prevents the war from escalating.

If not because this war happens once again in Fuyuki, potentially endangering his kids, he won't be accepting this offer.

There is also the fact that it seems Einzbern has employed a different mercenary to track him down.

Ah, from the camera, Kiritsugu sees a pair of twin-tailed female in red appears and accompanied by a white-haired female in red.

This must be Rin Tohsaka. He spoke with her father once in London before.

That man is quite an arrogant one; a failure of a father.

What kind of a person giving away his daughter toward a rival family? He was pretty sure while Servants band together fighting that monstrous Caster, that man was in a fight against Matou.

At that point he should have demand his daughter back, but he didn't.

There is no way Kiritsugu can just give away Illya, not in a million years.

If she is Tohsaka, then that lady in red must be Archer... though she feels a lot familiar for some reason.

It feels like he is looking at a younger Iri…

Is there a heroic Einzbern?

That's stupid. No Einzern was recorded being a hero. The family is a magi family. Exposing themselves sometimes means death.

Next to enter is a blue-haired man with a purple-haired female in hood.

He can see how she is wielding her scythe around, almost engaging in a fight against Archer and his Servant, Saber.

Judging from her weapon, she could be a Lancer, but he could be wrong. She could be Assassin or Berserker.

Definitely not Rider.

He found out not too long ago that Rider of Blue was summoned by a comatose girl in a hospital nearby, so they should be around their Master.

He should go and find this Servant. Who knows? Maybe he could ask Rider's help?

Owh, the grey-haired Master and his Caster arrive into the scene.

That Master of Lancer must have a really short fuse, seeing that he quickly pick a fight against Master of Caster.

This guy is going to be hard to work with.

Next one is…

Hmm…

Interesting…

Olga Marie Animusphere…

He once heard of Marisbury Animusphere, who was regarded as a failure of a magus for researching on something so stupid, not one magus believe in his theory of… something.

He should read more about what this guy does…

Recently, he heard that this man founded an organization that combines both magecraft and science, and is now obsession over "saving the world" as he called it before he passed away.

So now his daughter comes to join the grail war, probably for the same reason?

If it is about saving the world, he will be all ears, as long as it helps others.

Her Servant is… quite an interesting choice of clothing.

She wears a negligee and walks around like it was nothing.

The male in the room looks really flustered by her appearance.

Master of Caster looks away and Master of Lancer couldn't stop looking at her.

The Servant is probably an Assassin.

Honestly, that clothing, while distracting, can be used to get close to the enemy.

Then comes the last one, a man… a single person?

That man is El-Melloi II's student, Flat Escardos. He is the only true representative of the Clock Tower.

He is a prodigy, but he is way too cheerful for a magus.

Right now, he even takes selfie with almost everyone.

But where is his Servant?

Kiritsugu just realizes of this.

His Servant is most likely Berserker.

That class is known for the Mad Enhancement "skill" that turns the Servants insane. It is unwise to just bring them along for a simple meeting like this one.

Okay, he should go show his face now.

Back then Kiritsugu prefers not to show his face so that he could assassinate the enemy Masters without them knowing him.

But this is a team battle. Trust is a key component for this version of Holy Grail War.

And… he won't be focusing on killing the enemy.

The Fire of Fuyuki reminds him that he killed so many people already, he shouldn't be doing that anymore.

This time, he is here to protect, not to kill.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[Next Morning]

"What are these?"

"Who put them here?"

"Phantom Thieves? Who the crap-?"

"Shinji, your name is right here!"

The seaweed-haired man grabs one of the cards posted on the bulletin board and starts reading it out loud, "For Shinji Matou, the sinner that hurt and look down toward those around you. We, the Phantom Thieves, will steal your precious desire and will change you into a better person."

Now crumpling the cards in anger, he turns around and starts screaming, "Who the fuck put these up!? Come and face me, you cowards!"

 _"Come and steal my Treasure. See if you can even come close to me."_

 **The content of the meeting and the Palace will be done next chapter.**

 **Now, here comes the problem with the Palace. I've recently read an xover story with Persona 5, and the author makes a good point that it is really hard to just describe everything that happens inside the Palace. Every puzzles, shadow's dialogues, etc…**

 **What will happen next is just a bunch of description before the boss fight.**

 **Next: Ending Shinji's Palace and a meeting with Ruler. Also, a brief appearance of Team Red and a clue of who is the next Palace.**


	5. Shinji's Manor of Lust END

**Shinji's Manor of Lust END**

(A/N: It seems 'Yes' to DLC Persona wins, even though there is no poll to back that up. But don't worry, the only DLC Persona I'll be using is Picaro version and even then…)

It is the morning that Akira and Sakura decided to walk to the school together.

With Tsubasa already dashing her way off to her designated location, the two are now left on their own, thus why they are walking together as of now.

That morning felt peaceful for both of them, moving forward with their own pace without the need to worry about the world.

Unfortunately disturbance can come in various forms, for example, an annoying big brother who has little to no respect toward anyone that isn't named 'Shinji Matou'.

"I knew it, you slutty girl!" he calls out from their back, interrupting their walk.

Sakura is the first to turn around and sees him, startled by his appearance, "N-nii-san…"

It appears that even after the whole debacle inside the Palace, she is still shaking upon seeing him.

It's probably because real person gives off a different feeling than the Shadow version. The real version often appears as the sinister version of the cognition one, what with them hiding their true selves before everyone.

Shinji moves close to her, speaking out loud, "You really don't mind sleeping anyway as long as there is a man around, huh? This is indeed your true self."

"Nii-san… I…"

Akira steps forward, calling out to him, "Shut up, Shinji."

The blue-haired dude looks startled by his words, grumbling in anger mix with shock, "Y-You…"

But then he forms a smile on his face, "Would you like to hear the secret I said yesterday? You will not want to hang out with this bitch again if you hear what she always does at home."

Akira is now staring straight toward him, before snickers with a grin as he walks away, pulling her hand and herself with him.

"S-senpai…"

"Don't worry. Once everything is over, you will feel better about yourself. In fact, he won't even think about hurting you anymore."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

And so they go for a journey deep inside the man's psyche.

Sakura has decided that she would like to use a pair of knives tied up around with a chain, somewhat a strange combination that she really insist of using.

Doesn't seem that she has a hard time using it.

She also insists on being called as Sakurider… yeah… she isn't very creative with naming here…

So he decided to go with Viper instead. You know, her summoning a snake monster in the myth and all…

For some reason, all Persona users he met is able to jump around like an athlete the moment they become one, and she is not an exception.

They first go and walk around the first floor. In any exploration, it makes a lot more sense to cover the closest floor first.

The first floor isn't that bad. There are few rooms, mostly either filled with girls in skimpy clothing or men who called the ruler "Shinji-sama."

"Did he really see himself as that important?" Sakura wonders as they just finished off a group of Shadow that praises his 'achievement'.

Akira shrugs, "Probably what he wishes for. If you look at how he speaks at school, you can tell that he really want people to look at him as if he is a big deal. What is he like at home?"

The girl mumbles, "Mostly being ignored. My grandfather focuses on my training way too much to even look at him. He is a magus. Most magi won't pay much attention toward anyone who is not capable to produce a really good magic circuit, unless that person has a strange trait that makes them rare."

"That sounds like your typical medieval setting; If you are not rich, not a noble, not a warrior or even a scholar, people just won't look at you."

The two goes to explore some more, now reaching the dining room and lo and behold, they see someone interesting to even be put in there.

"T-Tohsaka-senpai!"

Yes, they found the twin-tailed girl, Rin Tohsaka, tied up in chains and sitting at the dining table. She even wears sexy clothing like other girls they found.

The girl looks silenced and less grumpy, at least that's the opposite of what he sees her before.

Sakura goes toward her, checking her out as she turns back toward Akira, "Senpai, what is this supposed to mean? Why is she her instead of inside those rooms like other cognition?"

Akira now looking around. He sees pictures of Shinji and Rin together, going on a date and even a picture of them naked together on a bed.

Definitely NSFW.

He wonders, "Is your brother has some sort of crush toward Tohsaka?"

She quickly nods, "Everyone knows about that. He seems to have a strong obsession toward her, even after so many rejections."

"He must really want to go on a dinner with her that she appears to be locked inside the dining room. And all of these pictures are just what he wishes to do with her."

"This is… too much…"

The girl turns to look at the cognition once more before muttering, "What if we free her from here?"

"It's a cognitive. A cognitive rarely changes if we tried to do so from the inside. She may have been recaptured by the guards before escaping here."

"I see…"

"Killing her won't do any good either. She's just going to pop up in the same place again."

They then decided to move toward where the living room is supposed to be at, where they sees a really disturbing thing to happen in this disturbing place.

Shadow Shinji is talking to a corpse.

"That's Zouken Matou, my grandfather…"

Sorry…

Wait, what?

"He doesn't look very healthy," Akira turns toward Sakura as the two are now hiding behind a huge statue of Shinji, "Is he always looks like that?"

She nods, "He does look a bit inhuman. Sometimes I feel like he is secretly a ghost of some sort."

"Have you ever asked him about that?"

A shake of a head is given instead, "She looks too scary for me to even ask about his face."

The two are now peeping at whatever the two are speaking right now.

"Master Shinji," the old man mutters, "You truly are my proudest kin."

The man with seaweed helmet scoffs at his words, "That's a given. I am a prodigy of all magus community after all. My achievement is bigger than what those losers have. That is why I am the heir of the Matou line, not some random strangers forcing themselves to be called as a Matou."

Shinji then decides to walk away from there, "I am a busy man, old man. Do not dare to interfere me with how I live my life."

The old man slowly turns away from him, now facing the statue itself, "I know you are there. Do not think you can hide your presence away from this old man."

!?

Akira and Sakura slowly walk out of there, facing the old man as he snickers, looking at the presence of one of them, "My, my, this is quite interesting. Has the divine harlot herself rebel against Wizard Marshall? Truly a despicable move, I will say so myself."

Sakura suddenly felt a pain right around her lower area, stumbling backward as she mutters, "G-Grandpa…"

"Sakura…" the man slowly approaches her, "Have you gone mad? Have you forgotten your role within this family? You are supposed to be a tool for Master Shinji to grow. You are a tool that I've groomed the moment I took you away from your beloved mother. Now, go back to your room, harlot."

"N-No…"

"What was that?"

"NO!"

She stands up once again, now pulling her blindfold off from her.

Gorgon appears behind her, ready to strike the old man down with her tail.

She screams out, "I will not be my brother's plaything anymore! I am my own person now!"

"Of course you are," Akira steps forward, nodding at her, "That is why you have a Persona. You should no longer be tied up to whatever your fake self is supposed to be. If you want to beat this old man down, then do it."

"I shall help you with that," Joker tears off his own mask, summoning a red eyed bipedal moth creature called Mothman to help.

"Very well. You seem needing more training to obey your master," the old man slowly pour out black ooze, now turning into a huge creature with nothing but his giant jaw and eyes, Abaddon.

Aside from that, tons of flying locust-like worms are swarming around him like a see-through tornado.

Some of them fly toward the two, but not before some of them ended up being petrified by Gorgon's eye beams and falls onto the floor, only to be crashed on impact.

Akira steps forward, shooting down some of them as he sends Mothman to fly toward the target, " **Maragi!"**

Most of the worms are being burned so bad they fall and die onto the floor.

He then grabs onto the Mothman midair before jumping close toward the creature, shooting the Shadow repeatedly on its head.

Sakura sees the opportunity and runs forward, now calling out, **"Psio!"** and shoots out balls of multicolored surface that hits onto the creature, hurting him badly.

The two then goes to shoot more Psio hitting him repeatedly till Abaddon is seen falling unconscious.

"Sakura, now!"

The two jump toward the Shadow, and in blurry effect striking him repeatedly.

The girl throws her knife and strike down the finishing blow as she lands onto the ground and moves her hair away from her face with a push.

FREE AS A BIRD!

Joker snickers, looking at his junior standing proudly as he turns to look at the remain of Zouken-Abaddon.

?

He quickly notices something shiny on the floor and goes to pick it up.

A key?

His eyes now wander all around the room. All of the rooms in this floor have been explored.

This key should be…

"Senpai, that key looks like for my brother's room…"

Room? Why would a key for his own place be guarded by his grandfather?

Sakura seems to have the answer for that, "Senpai, I have a thought, but I don't know if it's true or not."

"Any info would be great."

"I have a feeling that despite his issue with our grandfather, my brother still views him as a strong magus with a strong influence. Our late father once complained of having to live with a 'prickly old man' yet he did nothing about that. My uncle dies thanks to him forcing the worms inside his body."

"If my brother were to keep a Treasure, that would mean his room, right? I didn't know if he views other places inside the home as valuable as his own room."

Kurusu wonders of where this theory could go to, "Did you mean to say that Shinji may have left this key under your grandfather's safe keeping as a measure against the intruders?"

That might be true. Why not test it out?

?

"Sakura, what's that on the floor?"

His finger is now pointing toward where she finished her attack before, as there seems to be something wriggling on the floor.

Viper goes to pick up and inspects it before throwing it away, "No idea. Maybe that's one of the worms?"

That thing looks creepy, and still living.

They probably should just get out from there already…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Hmm!?"

Back in the real world, the real creepy walking corpse suddenly looks panic.

He turns around all over the place as he is heard mumbling, "Sakura… the worm… that's impossible…"

Ever since yesterday, he has been feeling this weird feeling of moving to a different place.

Whatever Sakura is feeling, he can feel the same feeling right away.

It is not a familial bond if one might think, but a rather sinister bond at that.

He would normally investigate the cause of this strange feeling. Sakura is a valuable specimen and a talented person to be bestowed the name Matou, so her safety would be his priority.

Besides, he needs her life force to stay alive.

He would rather not lose to that imitator family. It is a miracle that family still able to have their daughter alive after butchering his trademark magecraft like that.

Bacteria? Really?

There's a whole lot of reason why he prefers worms than a group of cellular organisms.

He would go and investigate this strange feeling, but then he also felt that Sakura has grown a new power inside her.

He could not explain what it is, but he can tell that she has created some sort of new magecraft.

A new magecraft, under the name Matou? What an achievement his granddaughter has achieved.

Probably thanks to this transfer student named Akira Kurusu. Ever since he is around her, he can feel her developing into a fine magus.

But now?

Now he feels something off.

He can no longer feel Sakura inside his person.

His body has grown weaker…

Could it be… the worm has detached itself from her? How? Why?

The… that new magecraft…That must be the reason why!

There is no other explanation! That must be it!

Damn… now he needs to find a new host… quick…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The road toward the weed's room isn't very hard.

The second floor is very big, bigger than the ground floor. The roads are all over the place, like a labyrinth mix and matching badly that one can simply walk on the walls to find a way out.

The puzzle here is just him pushing buttons for the right order, and the order is spelling the word 'MATOU'.

Seriously, what kind of Wizard Marshall this kid wishes to become? At least gives off a really challenging puzzle…

He feels like this is how far his distortion goes…

Is this the sign of his shallowness?

The enemies he met, even Kamoshida and Kaneshiro has some form of intelligence within their Palaces. They are some of the cunning people that took advantages on humanity's unwillingness of involvement.

This just goes to show how much he underestimate the moonlit world…

It's sad… It's just… sad…

Now, standing before the room, Sakura unlocks the door and goes to open the path into this dude's room.

The room is really big. Too big to be called a room.

This place, while a bedroom with an incredibly huge window, also contains the biggest picture of him in this house, sitting on a throne while almost naked, being surrounded by women in bunny girls outfit, even Sakura and Rin.

And also Shirou…

Huh…

Also… Shirou?

Shirou Emiya… in bunny girl costume…?

"Sakura, where is the nearest trash can?"

But Sakura did not notice of the (horrifyingly fetishized) picture frame.

Instead her eyes are fixed at the huge light in the middle of the room.

Owh, yeah. That thing…

He has been doing this job for a year that he almost not noticing of that.

Joker decides to explain to her, "This is the Treasure, but it is not in its complete form."

"Is that why we have to send him a calling card?" she turns to ask him that.

He nods, "If we told him that we are trying to steal something valuable, his mind will immediately thinking of whatever that thing is. That thing will be his Treasure given form and at that point we can simply grab the treasure and walks away from here."

"What do you think the shape will be?"

"Depends. Let's hope it's not one of those bunny girls in the photo."

"Senpai, what are you talking about? What bunny- AAHHH!"

The girl turns completely red, quickly runs toward the picture in a futile attempt of covering it, "Senpai, don't look!"

Too late.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I'm home…"

Shinji goes to enter the Matou Residence that night after a long hour of walking inside the forest.

He just got home from the meeting and it is nothing more than a waste of his time as he-

The house is dark.

Is Sakura still at that asshole's place again? She must have really enjoying herself there that she forgets who she is in this family!

He should have just gone to eat at a fast food restaurant somewhere if he knows that this is going to happen.

"Sh-Shinji?"

That voice… "Grandpa?"

The old man creeps out into the living room, looking weak as he mumbles, "How is the… meeting?"

"It's stupid. I don't need all of those weaklings to win this war. My Lancer can defeat all of them no problem."

"Need I remind you not to be a fool in this war?"

"Fool? Grandpa, you are the idiot one here. The Master of Rider is a child in coma. Assassin is a stripper. Caster has a father-complex issue. Master of Berserker couldn't even bother bringing his Servant along with him. Honestly, only two people other than me in the team that could even stand a chance against the enemy."

"This is why you could never be as good of a magus as your sister. You are quick to judge who's strong and who's not. Do not forget that even the weakest Servant can kill you like breaking a toothpick. That Servant of yours isn't even yours originally. She's your sister's. You will never be your sister, no matter how much you put yourself inside her."

The old man tries to walk away from there, but he suddenly stumbles as Shinji quickly goes to help him.

"Grandpa, are you even okay?"

"I'm… I'm fine… I'm just old…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

That brings us toward the next afternoon, during lunch break.

Somehow not even the teachers realized about the posts.

Taking the inspiration from Ryuji, Akira and Sakura quickly goes to the school early in the morning and posted the calling cards they took the whole evening designing and copying…

xxxxxxxxxxxx[FLASHBACK]xxxxxxxxx

Akira is simply standing near the photocopy machine at a convenience store, even waving at the shopkeeper while doing so.

A brown haired woman appears entering the shop as she goes to look around the place, before settling in with a can of carbonated drink as she hangs around beside him, taking a bit of drinks.

Her eyes quickly turn to see the papers being copied on the machine and reads a bit of it, "Strange papers."

He turns to look at the papers and quickly responds to her, "Owh, yeah… I am… going to humiliate an asshole tomorrow."

"Humiliate? That looks like blackmail to me."

"It's just… an adventure of mine. It's a heist, but I call it that."

"Adventure? I had an adventure before. Can't remember how it ended. I think I died…"

What?

She suddenly pulls herself up, seeing a blonde female outside of the shop, signaling her to come out as she goes out quickly.

He swears that he notices of her pulling out a gun. It seems she is also putting it on her head.

Hmm…

Owh, the papers are finished.

Xxxxxxxxxxxx[PRESENT]xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To make this not a joke for him, they purposely arrange the cards into the shape of his Command Seal. You know, proving the point.

Akira and Sakura simply watch from afar, as they quickly walk away from there.

Sakura seems to be really excited of this, almost giving an obvious smile for him, "This… this should be it, right?"

"Yeah. The Treasure will materialize right now and we will be able to steal it from him."

"See you later, then!"

Kurusu goes on the separate ways toward his class, only to meet the girl who he is pretty sure has been stalking him from afar.

"Can I help you?"

"What are you doing with Sakura Matou?"

"I'm sorry?"

I know who you are, Akira Kurusu."

This girl…

"Thank you, Tohsaka-san. The fact that you know my name means that you really do know me."

"You know me?"

"Yeah, Sakura speaks a lot about you."

It's a lie. She isn't really doing that.

It's Issei who has been decorating her name with a variation of the word 'witch'.

But he would like to play a part in reuniting two sisters together.

Thanks to her startling reaction with a blush on her face speaks how much she actually cares about her.

But he would rather not wasting more time getting unwanted attention.

He would rather not attract an unwanted attention of a magus at this moment, not when he has a life to free.

"Nice to speak to you, but I would like to go back to my class. If there is nothing el-"

"You are one of the Masters of Red, isn't it?"

…

"I'm sorry?"

Rin glares straight toward him, "I saw you the night you fought Lancer. He tried to kill you and you have two Servants saving your ass."

That… night? The night he first arrived there?

"At first I thought you are a fellow Master of Blue, but now I know you are not. It must have been a misunderstanding with Lancer back then."

And her point is…

"Whatever you are planning to do, DO NOT drag Sakura along with you. If I find out that you put her in harm's way, none of your Servants will be able to protect your soul."

That's very suspicious… did she even tried to hide the fact that they are sister?

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna harm your girlfriend."

"Gi-What are you talking about!?" she turns red, so red that it seems somebody just explode a can full of red paint on her face.

"She's not your girlfriend? That's weird. Why are you overprotective to her? It's not like you two are sisters…"

"I- I just don't want you to do anything stupid, you stupid!"

"You could've just warned me not to harm anyone in this school, but why specifically mentioning her name. Are you perhaps has a crush on her instead? I can hook you two together."

"B-BAKA!"

Her scream is so loud that people around them just start flocking, looking at her stomping her way away from him.

Issei appears beside him, mumbling, "Great work, my comrade. You are not one of those boys not easily distracted by that witch."

Sakura is also there, looking at the two figures each other, wondering what just happened to the seniors of hers.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Enough dilly-dallying.

It is time to end this increasingly uncomfortable Palace.

Going straight to the safe room on the second floor, a method which Viper keeps bombard him with tons of questions, most on whether or not this method of fast travel is similar to Second Magic.

For the last time, Sakura, it's not. This place isn't even real. There is no way fast travel needs to be as realistic as the real world.

Pushing themselves straight into Shinji's bedroom, they arm themselves, ready for any fight, but instead seeing Shinji and Lancer standing toward a strange, floating object.

"So, you guys are indeed the Phantom Thieves from the calling card. I was quite confused when I read the cards. It almost feels like that Emiya guy's language."

He then slowly turns around, looking forward to both of them, grinning wide as he screams out, "I am now wondering who are these idiots that announce their intention of stealing my Magic Crest!"

Magic Crest? That floating huge thing behind him that looks like a rock with lines all over it? Isn't that's supposed to be a Mystic Code?

Shadow Shinji is now starting to ramble, "Do you have any idea how valuable this thing is to me? It makes me who I am today. I am not a Wizard Marshall without this crest."

Akira would like to disagree to that notion, "So, you are saying that it is because of that crest that you are a Wizard Marshall, not because of an awesome achievement or something alike?"

Shinji suddenly burst in laughter, "Do you even know how stupid you sound like right now? Of course it is because of MY magic crest that I am a Wizard Marshall! Strength and might is what decides the rank!"

"This is stupid…"

Sakura mumbles, slowly turning into a burst of anger, "This is too stupid, nii-san! You are not even a magus in the first place and you already imagine yourself in the same position as the great magus Zelretch and Barthomeloi Lorelei themselves!? You hardly do any sort of magecraft in your whole life! The only you ever did is flirting around and getting rejected by the school idol!"

She steps forward, brandishing her knives, "You can't even get laid without a help of your own sister! And now you are thinking yourself as the greatest magus ever lived?"

The girl turns toward Akira, "Senpai, you told me before that the Palace you visited previously all have their own depths of psychology that forces them to see the world and look down upon others differently than others. I don't think my brother has the same depth as those people you mentioned."

"Look at that picture!" her finger is now pointing toward that giant picture of weirdness, "This picture sums exactly what this Palace is all about. He just wants to get famous and some pussies!"

Hmm…

She's not wrong. Some assholes are just simpletons.

But to be basic while possessing a Palace… how is that even possible? Basic people like that should just appear in Mementos, not having a Palace of their own…

Is there even Mementos here? He should really check these out…

"You… BITCH!" Shinji now screams out real hard, grabbing the stone's surface as he screams out, "You want to see what makes me a Wizard Marshall!? Then witness my own awesome magecraft!"

Some of the lines on the stone slowly move toward him, enveloping himself with so many circuits that his body started to swollen. The stone just decreases itself in size.

Seriously, this guy didn't even have a basic knowledge on magecraft. That thing is NOT a Magic Crest; that is a MYSTIC CODE!

He grows in size, with his hands and legs slowly turning into some sort of chair underneath his now naked body. His body turning blue and what's left of his previous being is his hair on his face… that is now… protruding like a penis…

This guy is now Mara…

A blue-haired giant Mara sitting on an organic looking wheelchair.

Yup, that thing has been promoted into a Ruler of a Palace.

Compare to this guy, his own Mara seems nicer to look at.

That Shinji-Mara thing is now screaming out loud, "THIS IS WHAT MY MAGECRAFT IS! I AM NOW POSSESING THE BEST WEAPON NO MAN COULD EVER COMPARE!"

Owh, god… did he just talked about his penis?

Sakura shivers as she mutters, "Senpai, can I stay at your home again today? I really want to take a nice shower at your place…"

"I would like to have one too. How about we finish this guy off as quickly as possible?"

Nodding toward each other, Joker runs straight ahead first, moving close to the dick monster before being forced to evade the hair chain from Lancer.

She spins her polearm weapon around, smiling as she mutters, "You don't think I would let you getting close to my Master just like that, don't you?"

"I was wishing you would. If he is as good as he proudly sees himself as, that master of yours won't be needing you around."

"True, but I wouldn't want to share my perfectly good prey with him."

Lancer now charges forward, going for a kill.

 **"Setanta!"**

The bowl-haired Persona appears out of the mask and quickly deflects the weapon off from him, before smashing his spear right into the Servant's chest.

Instead of pain, she chuckles, "You don't think it would be that easy to just kill a Servant, no?"

"It's pretty much the same thing as other Shadows, but that also mean that if I hit you enough, I can defeat you right here, right now!"

 **"Jack Frost!"**

"Hee-ho!" a cute snowman replaces Setanta, now blowing a huge chunk of ice that freezes some of her leg, putting her on one place.

Akira now pulls out his gun, rolling to the side twice as he shots her, making her feeling really hurt before he replaces Jack Frost with another, " **Okuninushi!"**

A warrior-looking Persona now appears, slashing her repeatedly as he jumps over him, throwing something as he shouts, **"Frei!"**

A ball of energy appears near her, hurting her as the ice cracks and frees her, not without hurting her.

Sakura is quite busy with Shinji, running all around the place as she is trying so hard avoiding spells over spells raining at her from the dick-on-the-wheels.

" **Cybele!"**

Gorgon pops up, now shooting one of the wheels and petrifying the circle object, halting his movement.

"WHA- WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! WHY CAN'T I SWING MYSELF AROUND ANYMORE!?"

This guy just couldn't stop cringing her.

Gritting her teeth, she jumps away and starts spamming her Gandr at the riding shaft.

"Y-YOU! I AM IN CLIMAX RIGHT NOW, AND YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SAY NO!"

"God damn it, stop it!"

Sakura screams out, throwing her chains around as the foreskin is getting hit stabbed repeatedly.

But this seems to agitating the guy even more, as his head slowly turning white.

Akira quickly notices of this before screaming out, "Viper, watch out!"

Unfortunately the girl in blindfold trips and almost falls onto the floor when Mara goes to shoot a beam straight toward her.

 **"Izanagi Picaro!"**

A figure in red and black checkered outfit appears grabbing Sakura out of the way from the white beam as it hits the wall behind her instead.

At the same time, Akira falls onto the ground, feeling some sort of pain in his chest. It feels as if he just used a forbidden technique of some sort.

His Persona simply disappears from the sight of all.

 _"It seems those mysterious picaresque Persona is not something you should call upon. They are connected to you faintly and does not seem like they are leaving your world of origin anytime soon."_

Ah… well…

He didn't really like those Personas anyway.

They just popped inside his mask suddenly, without any explanation whatsoever. Even Caroline and Justine didn't know where they come from, simply stating that they were 'paid' to be part of him.

He did not recruit them, nor did he fuse other Personas to get them. It feels like cheating sometimes.

Now he feels weaken when using one of them. It seems his position as a Servant do affects them. He can't pull them without drawing a larger amount of mana then others.

Well, normal Personas are not that bad.

Lancer sees this outcome and starts chuckling, "It is finally time for me to create a new art then…"

BANG!

The female tries to get close to him, but doing so just making herself vulnerable to a non-mana attack like the bullets.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Sorry, miss, but the only art I would join is not one that hurts my body. **Arsene!"**

His starter Persona appears once more, and now shooting out a huge curse attack, " **Eigaon!"**

"AAArrghh!"

With Lancer is thrown to the back, Joker turns his attention toward Shinji and charging forward, getting close to Viper, "Now!"

Pointing his gun and her finger, the two shoots a barrage of bullets and spells toward the 'curved sword on wheels' repeatedly, making him hurt for every single attacks, even the follow up where the two now unleashing spells over spells onto the poor limp… thing…

Alright, enough of gross name calling.

If he wants to get his way with ladies, he can try this one.

 **"Alice!"**

A small girl in blue and white dress appears before him, now smiling at him, " _Thank you for finally calling me, Father. I've long for this day once more."_

"Father?" Sakura stares at him, "Senpai, I didn't know you can make a child with a Persona…"

"That's not-… She's not-…"

Sighing and giving up, Akira simply mutters, "Alice, strike him down."

" **Die for me!"**

"IS THAT A REQUEST!?" Mara now slowly moves toward where the three are at, "OR AN ORDER!? DOESN'T MATTER TO ME! THERE IS NO WAY A MAGUS AS STRONG AS ME SHOULD EVEN NEED TO LISTEN TO- WHAT ARE THEY AND WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE!?"

Shadow Shinji seems startled, seeing so many giant teddy bears running forward and bumping onto him. The back of the bears seem to have bombs strapped around them, and each bumps ignite flames and explodes them upon contact. More and more appears, exploding onto him and letting him suffering some form of curse damage.

With one last scream and fireworks, he falls onto the floor, turning back into his more favorable humanoid appearance.

"Well then," Kurusu, having his mask back on, moving straight to the floating stone that seems to have a size of his palm, conveniently.

His hand is about to grab the stone, but a voice calling out to him.

"Please, don't!"

The two turns back toward Shinji, who slowly pulling himself, scraping through the floor with his right hand trying to reach out to the stone.

"That stone… that is everything for me! That stone is what making me important! Without it, I'm just a nobody! Nobody loves a nobody! I need that thing!"

"Nii-san," Sakura sits beside him, offering him a smile, "The way you lives right now, is not what makes you important. You are famous for a wrong reason. You neglect responsibilities, constantly making fun of others and forcing others to do your bidding."

"But… but I… I just want my grandfather… to acknowledge my strength! I want him to admit that I am a good magus!"

"What's so good about being a magus? I never did any magecraft until today and that doesn't inconvenient me. A magus is just people lazy enough to not get a technology of their own. They burn up their own magical circuit just to cook something when others can just flip a switch for that."

She stands up, glaring down at him, "Nii-san, being likened by someone like grandpa is a curse. Even your father scared of him. Just go away and reform yourself. Maybe then you can be as popular as Shirou-senpai."

Shinji stares at her. His face loses expression; only confusion lingers.

Slowly, he disappears off from the room.

KRRRRRRR….

"Senpai, what's that sound?"

Ah…

"I forgot to tell you this," her senior turns around, facing her with the stone in his hand, "when a Treasure is being taken away from its place and the ruler of the Palace is gone, this place is going to collapse soon."

"Wha- we need to get out of here then!"

"You do realize there is a huge window we can use, right?"

"But this is the second floor…"

PRANG!

Ignoring her words, Joker simply smashes himself out from the window and even forcing Viper to join her as well, as they both reaches the outside quite easily, seeing how their legs are still fine.

The Metaverse for them is probably what Earth is for Kryptonite, minus the flying and the super power…

The two now turns to see the house crumbles into nothingness, and back they are to the outside world, looking at their school, standing still with nothing changes.

Seeing this reminds him that he needs to have a Mona-car of his own in this world.

The sole male in there turns around, speaking up to her as he asks her, "Does your brother even know what a Mystic Code is? That Treasure is definitely one."

"I don't think he knows what a magecraft really is. My grandfather is not too bothered to teach him and he has nobody else to do so."

"I bet he didn't even know what a mana transfer is."

The sole female there is now staring him, "Senpai, I didn't know what that is too…"

Owh…

…

Well, this is awkward…

Akira quickly looks down, seeing something in his hand, "Hey, look, the Treasure has turned into a book."

"That's…"

"You know what this is?"

She explains, "That is the Book of False Attendant. That Lancer… I summoned that Lancer before but one of my Command Seals is residing in that book so that my brother can become a Master like he wants to. Isn't the Treasure a stone before?"

It's his turn to explain, "A Treasure takes a form of something that makes them what they are, but it can also be affected by the cognition of the ruler. Magical circuit is what makes a magus, essentially. Maybe for him, having a book that controls a Servant makes him a magus."

"I see," she looks down at the book, before startled at something, "Wait, how did we get this book, then? My brother must have been at home or somewhere else."

"This is just a copy of an original," he passes the book toward her, "It's an exact copy, through and through."

"What are you going to do with this now?"

"Maybe I should destroy this thing? It has no use for me."

"You don't want to have your Servant back?"

"I don't want to join the war."

A voice suddenly interrupting them, bringing them to an attention of someone familiar to him.

Ruler, in her Servant's outfit, is now standing before them, looking directly at him, "Servant Fool, I wish to speak to you regarding your role in the Holy Grail War."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Curses…

Losing his source of energy, Zouken thought it would be a good idea to use Shinji's body temporarily while he either finds her or a new, suitable source.

This boy's body isn't very good. He has no talent of being a magus but he is of no use to a man like Zouken.

But then, something feels not right about this kid's body.

He feels an overwhelming amount of energy that fully rejects him off from the host.

That strange magecraft… it felt the same as what pulls him off from Sakura.

This cannot be. He must go and find other host.

Zouken struggles to even move in that form. He slowly loses controls of his familiar, and now he is but a single worm, flying around, looking for whoever is still around this evening.

Quickly, he found Sakura, walking toward a direction along with a black-haired boy and a blonde girl.

That boy… he must be Akira Kurusu…

He can feel something strange about this boy. This kid… must be an exceptional magus.

He should have his body… yes, that should be it.

This can be Sakura's punishment for rejecting him. She should know not to cross him.

PIUU!

!

The worm falls off onto the ground, hurting and bleeding as Zouken is now feeling confused with what just happened.

Did he just get shot with a gun?

A voice is heard looming toward him, "Zouken Matou, you have been recognized by my master as a threat to his plan. As a Godslayer, it is my duty to dispose of any threat against him."

PIUUU!

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

"I… I have a confession to make…"

It is supposed to be a normal school assembly, but someone had the nerve to stand before the teacher, facing the students in the middle of the day.

"Everyone… I hated most of you… You guys were just losers to me… you guys… I felt that none of deserve to even get close to me…"

He suddenly kneels down, "I am the worst person… I… I raped my sister every night… I blackmailed her and do such… such crime just to vent my anger…"

"YOU WHAT!?"

Rin's voice is heard screaming, now pulling herself out from the crowd as she glares straight to him.

That day, a male student is arrested for sexual assault and a female student is arrested for attempted murder…

 **Sorry, guys.**

 **FSN Shinji is one character that the only people that likes him or even able to tolerate his actions. He barely has any redeeming quality and there is also the fact that he is not well develop for a villain. He basically has nothing that could make him a better person or a dangerous antagonist.**

 **Instead they (TypeMoon) settled him as a loud, obnoxious asshole (Fate and UBW) or a rapist dead while having sex (HF).**

 **Heck, even his Extra version is developed more than him. In fact, Unarmed Shinji-kun is a better character (see if anybody get this reference).**

 **Count that all up, and his Palace is there because his lust way too strong and there's literally nothing in there.**

 **Thus why, this is how his Palace ends.**

 **Next: Ruler demands Akira to be fully involved in the war as the Red Team is now gathering in Fuyuki, ready for a fight. At least one Servant from each team is going to fight.**


	6. Next Stage

Next Stage

KRENG! KRENG! KRENG!

Red siren blaring out all around the building, with smokes slowly filling up the floor and bodies all over the place.

A door opens up, now having a blue-haired female in sailor outfit slowly walks out of a room, glaring around the place with her yellow eyes, stopped when she sees a red-haired female in black leather suit approaches her.

The female raises her rapier, clearly ready for a fight.

The blue-haired female simply snickers, "I've told you before, simply deactivating me won't do you any good."

She then swings her axe around, calling out, **"Asterius!"**

The floor before her darken, and with that appears a huge bull-headed creature, so huge that the walls around them are immediately destroyed as the red-haired one jumps away from the oncoming appearance.

"If you please excuse me, I'll be joining the Holy Grail War."

She quickly turns around and runs away from there as the bull slowly disappears from the existence.

"Ms. Kirijo, are you hurt?" a black-haired maid quickly helps the one in leather suit standing up.

The redhead is clearly hurting, what with her left hand is already limping close to her.

But instead she responds with, "Call Aigis. We need her help for this matter. Only she can stop Unit #031."

"But…"

"Right now, we are at odd with the Clock Tower. Her involvement in the Holy Grail War will make things even worse than before."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sleeping…

This is what Aigis has decided to do to spend her time as a human.

No, she is not a human. She could never be one physically.

She is an Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapon designed as a weapon against an enemy called Shadow.

But currently she is trying to enjoy what some humans enjoy; sleeping.

She has been trying so hard to live like one. It is a promise she made to someone dear to her after all.

 _"My child, wake up."_

Hmm?

The blonde-haired female quickly pulls herself up.

This… this is not her room.

This is Gekkoukan High School's dorm room. This place is way back at Tatsumi Island.

She was inside her room in Tokyo. How did she get here?

She quickly turns around, now seeing a figure holding a shield and a spear.

She has no idea who or what she is, but she felt strange familiarity coming from her.

Is she…

"Pallas Athena?"

Her Persona? That's impossible. Her Persona doesn't look like-

The figure quickly interrupts her thought, _"I am indeed Athena. You are correct, my child."_

"A-Athena?" she pushes herself up from the couch, standing up as she now looking at this strange figure.

"That's impossible. What are you?"

 _"I am the Goddess of Wisdom, Athena. I am also known by many other titles, but as of now, wisdom is what humanity needs."_

What is she talking about? What wisdom?

 _"My child, have you heard of the Holy Grail War?"_

Holy Grail War? It is one of those thing SEES and Clock Tower discussed about in their previous meeting.

She was there. She remembers it well.

It was around a year ago when she had learned of the existence of people using magic in real life, calling themselves magi, practicing magecraft by drawing energy from themselves called mana.

It is also around the same time they learned of Persona and Shadow.

A meeting between representatives of both sides, the SEES and the Clock Tower happened not too long ago as they discussed on how they intended to keep each other's existence with secrecy.

Unfortunately, while the secrecy itself are agreed mutually, there are other matters that making both sides not liking each other very much.

SEES wish to learn more of magecraft, and essentially learning to use one, but Clock Tower doesn't seem too fond of having their work being used by "people tainted by technologies", especially seeing how her and the likes of her is already able to use magic thanks to Persona.

Clock Tower wishes for some of the Persona Users known by SEES to be turned over to them for education purpose, but not before their leader, Waver Velvet, who did agreed on Mitsuru-san's idea of learning magecraft, call out their bluff, saying some magi just want to cut them open.

Instead of being allies, the two sides settled with ceasefire only.

The Holy Grail War was mentioned and discussed as some of the magi compared Persona summoning with their own Heroic Spirit summoning.

But why is this… goddess suddenly mentioned of the grail war?

She slowly nods at her.

Athena gives a warm smile to her, " _Then, there is no need for further explanation anymore. I was summoned into this world by my Master."_

Summoned?

Aigis quickly opens up her mouth, "But I heard that gods and goddesses cannot be summoned into the war. Is it not true?"

 _"You are not wrong, my child. The grail war can only be participated by magi and heroes of the old. But in some instance, it is possible to summon one, either without our divinity or forcing us to possess a body suitable for human interaction."_

Possession?

"Is that why you are here?"

The goddess nods, " _True, I am here needing your body, but for us to simply pick one is factored by our compatibility. I simply appear before you due to your ability to summon your Persona with my appearance. But that's not all. My master, who summoned me here, seems to have a deep connection with you."_

Deep connection with her? Who is that person? Who has such connection with her?

 _"Do not worry about me using your body. I do not wish to be part of this sickening war of greed nor should I interfere with humanity's own decision. I am merely present you with the opportunity to be part of something greater."_

The figure now raises her spear forward toward her, muttering one last word, " _As of now, you shall be my replacement, Archer. Together, with the one you owed your life to, go and free humanity from our sins."_

"Aigis… wake up…"

Hearing this one feminine voice, the blonde slowly opens up her eyes, moving her head to her right.

Her eyes are now staring at a figure in school uniform, smiling at her with her brown haired tied up on the back of her head, "Aigis, let's go. We have a world to save."

"K-Kotone… Shiomi…"

Wha- It can't be! She… this person… she is… long gone…

Kotone mutters once more, "We should go to Kyushu now. But let's not tell anybody about us, okay?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[PRESENT]

Akira appears back into the living room, now serving both Sakura and Jeanne tea.

Just now, right after finishing Shinji's Palace, Ruler appeared before them, demanding for a meeting with him.

That is why she is here as of this moment.

But just now… Sakura insisted on following him home, even though that's pretty much what she is about to tell her.

The change of heart will take some time. It may happen tomorrow, it may happen in the later date. It's definitely not now, not when Shinji is obviously fainted as of this moment.

So why is she acting like a kid arguing over a toy?

…

Hmm…

Nope. There is no way…

Owh, god…

The Valentine's Day trauma is back once again…

Snapped back to reality, Akira quickly springs up a question, " So… what do you want to talk about?"

Jeanne puts the tea back onto the table, and her eyes move toward him, showing how serious whatever is inside her mind right now, "I want to know what your role is in this war."

"My… role?"

Sakura turns toward Akira, before standing up and turns to look at her, "What do you mean, his role? You are a Ruler, right? You should know very well Kurusu-senpai is a civilian and should never be part of the grail."

Akira quickly speaks up to her, "Sorry, Sakura. But I didn't tell you one thing about myself."

"Wha-" her head turns toward him, "Senpai…"

"Right now, I am a Servant."

"Ser-Wha- Se-senpai, what are you talking about!?"

The purple-haired girl is clearly confused by his words, "But… you are a transfer student in our school… There's no way a Servant can just enroll into a school without a proper document…"

"That's because I am possessing a student with the same name."

"Same…?"

"My True Name is Akira Kurusu, and in order to be summoned into this world, I possessed another version of me."

"I… I don't get it…"

Nope, his senior is still confused, "Who are your Master then?"

Igor.

"Holy Grail," is his answer instead, "I've been employed by the Holy Grail for a mission of my own, different from Ruler's mission of spectating the grail war. Instead, I am here to investigate an anomaly happens in this world."

Akira turns toward Ruler, "Didn't I told you that before?"

She nods, "But, you have been bringing along another Master into whatever you are doing before."

"You… saw that?" he questions her, receiving a nod.

The blonde mutters, "Yes. I not only saw you and her entering a Reality Marble, but also you fighting that… vulgar… thing…"

She blushes.

"Em… Ruler? You look unwell…"

Akira actually knows why exactly she's acting like that.

It seems she has been secretly following them before, probably the day where they have gone to fight Shinji-Mara and taking the Treasure away from him.

She quickly coughs out loud before muttering, "I would like to know what kind of place that is. Why do you have such… peculiar Reality Marble?"

Jeanne glares at him, "Reality Marble sometime reflects the user's heart and soul. Are you perhaps…"

"I'm not!" he quickly screams out, "That's my Noble Phantasm! I can pull out someone else's distortion view of this world and if I steal the Treasure of that person, I can change that person's heart and turn them good."

In an effort of not being called a pervert, he subsequently revealed what he is capable of…

"I see…" Ruler is now giving a thought of her own, "You can bring out someone else's Reality Marble. That is a skill all magus will surely desire. I've seen how you summon various Servants inside them and even using magecraft of different elements… You are certainly no ordinary magus in your life time."

Yeah… magus… that's definitely him.

"But why are you involving a Master with your work?"

Sakura quickly responds, "I… I'm the one who accidentally got involved with this. I ended up summoning a Persona in there."

"I was just going to help her away from her brother. He has been sexually assaulting her for a long time, apparently."

!?

Jeanne's eyes suddenly widen. Her muscle seems stiff as she quickly looks away, "Persona?"

Akira replies, "Those are not Servants I summoned. They are Persona. Consider them familiars instead. Almost everyone can have them."

"Familiars?" she looks confused, "But with the name of gods…"

"Consider them familiars with the name of gods."

"That… would make some sense…"

Jeanne takes a deep breath before muttering, "Forgive me for my rudeness. With the Masters of Blue are now in one place, the Masters of Red can attack them in any time. A war will erupt between them and I am merely wishing for to not complicate things up."

"But…" she turns to look at him, now giving him a smile, "As fellow Servants of the Holy Grail, as long as it did not contradict my role as Ruler, you can ask for my assistance any time."

She bows at them before walking out from there, "If you excuse me…"

The two simply look at how she walks away from there, as Sakura turns toward him, "Senpai, if you are a Servant, what is your class?"

"Fool."

"I'm sorry?"

"My class is Fool."

"Like the tarot?"

"Like the tarot."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[NEXT MORNING]

"Are… you okay?"

That day, Shinji's change of heart kicks in and he screams out to everyone what he has been doing.

Nothing particular, really. People just learned that instead of the cool student persona he showed to everyone, he sees them as nothing but annoyance.

But one thing he said that makes people paid an attention; what he did to his sister daily.

The reaction that Rin shows of her beating him in front of everyone right then and there is priceless. Pretty sure someone managed to record that.

Right now, during the lunch break, the two are hiding from all eyes inside the archery club as they are eating the breakfast Ayaha made for them, silently just to make sure nobody is looking.

Sakura mutters, answering his concern, "It's going to take some time to get used to. So many people are asking for forgiveness as if they already know about that this whole time."

"Shouldn't you be glad? At least they didn't question your situation like you are the true culprit and he is just a victim. I know some people would love to be in your place."

"Yeah…" she suddenly forms a smile, "Thank you, senpai…"

Akira sees her eyes staring at him, and proceeds to give her his own smile, "Just think of this as a job the Phantom Thieves took."

Something comes into his mind, "But what about his Servant? Didn't that Servant of his is originally yours?"

"I don't know… Maybe I'll take her as my bodyguard? I can't do whatever I did in the Metaverse. I can't just give away my Command Spells without killing Lancer or giving her to what could be a worse Master. That feels so wrong to me…"

"Then…"

"I'm not gonna join the war. I'm just going to stay away from it and lay low for now."

Staying away from the war… That sounds so impossible yet possible at the same time. But it is also quite risky since other Servants can sense each other and just attack her if they want to.

Another factor is that the Servant may not like taking their wishes away from them.

"Have you considered Lancer's wish for the grail?"

She shakes her head, "Her True Name is Medusa. She is like my Persona, but before Gorgon consumed her sisters, Euryale and Stheno. She loses control of her monstrosity nature after being cursed by Athena thanks to the goddess's rage after learning that Medusa was raped by Poseidon."

Hmm…

"That makes no sense. Why would Medusa is the one taking the punishment instead of Poseidon?"

Sakura replies, "Her excuse was that since Poseidon is her uncle and a fellow deity, Medusa will have to take the blame instead."

"Sounds like slut shaming to me."

The purple-haired girl suddenly sighs, "You're right. I should consider Lancer's wish. What if she wants to see her sisters back? What if she wants retribution? I should ask her tonight…"

"Tonight…" another thought appears in his brain, "Where are you sleeping tonight?"

"I guess… I'll be going home tonight. You said that once nii-san has reformed, he won't even dare to think of doing _that_ again, right?"

"What about your grandfather?"

The girl is now thinking of something, "I have a feeling I'm going to be fine."

Kurusu chuckles, "If anything, you should call me. I'll be around the corner."

Sakura seems to have finished with her food, closing the box as she stands up, giving him a bright smile, "If anything, I am always welcomed to your home, right?"

"No, you're staying with me!"

The door now opens up, with Sakura, Shirou and four other girls entering the clubhouse.

One of the four girls is Ayako Mitsuzuri. She seems to be a close friend of Shirou, though that guy seems to be friends with everyone. Issei, on the other hand, doesn't seem to share the same opinion about her.

The girl is now speaking out to her, "Now I know where you are during lunches. Is this where you hang out all this time?"

Now the youngest one loses her words in shock, "I… uh…"

Ayako notices of Kurusu beside her, "You seem to have been close with Sakura lately…"

Sakura quickly responds to her, "He's just… He helped me out a lot!"

"I've heard of it," the other non-black haired girl of the bunch mutters, "Tsubasa told me just now that Sakura was staying two nights in a row at her home."

The dark skinned girl seems to be in shock, "Really? But Kurusu is Tsubasa's cousin, right? Then…"

Akira stands up, speaking up to them all, "Yes, I told her to stay with us for a while. Shinji was trying to threaten her with something and I didn't want her to get hurt. I didn't know he didn't just hit her."

Ayako wonders, "When did you know about her then?"

"She told me about it that night."

All eyes are now at him.

Mitsuzuri now moves close to Shirou, hitting him on the shoulder, "Look at what you have done. You should feel a lot of regret by now."

The redheaded nods, "You're right. I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't know he did that to you before. As a friend, I should have known about it."

As a friend…

Ayako sighs, facepalming herself, "Emiya, you really are dense…"

But she and other girls seem startled when Sakura chuckles suddenly, "Don't worry, Shirou-senpai. You did nothing wrong. I just happen to have decided to tell Akira-senpai about it that night. I could have told all of you before."

"You're right," he nods, turning toward Kurusu, "Thank you, Akira. You are indeed a hero."

Not a hero. He's a thief.

The one girl that still did not speak anything finally opens up her mouth, "Still, how come Shinji just told everyone about it? Did something happened to him before?"

The glasses girl mutters, "Someone named Phantom Thief posted notes on the board yesterday, talking about knowing Shinji's crime and wanting to steal his heart or something like that."

"Phantom Thief…" Rin mumbles, "Could he really be a real person then? Stealing a heart and… making someone confess…"

Spot on.

This girl is dangerous. Not many people can just guess what Phantom Thieves did during their first debut.

But she seems really interested on this matter, looking at how she seems to be in a deep thought over something.

One of the girls wonders, "But doesn't that sounds like an occult?"

Ayako shrugs, "Maybe it's just something like blackmail or something. Or maybe it is an attempt to make another urban legend, like that story about that bloody apartment room with the scary child in the elevator."

What… kind of urban legend is that?

!?

Owh…

He just realized that Rin is glaring straight toward him.

She must have been suspecting him or something.

Let's take her attention away from him.

Kurusu opens up his mouth, "By the way, Tohsaka. Didn't you just said something about having Sakura staying with you?"

All eyes are now onto her.

"Yeah, what about it?" she stares at them all.

Akira mutters, "Why would you be so generous to her?"

"Why not? Sakura is a nice girl. I just don't want her to stay with that sorry excuse of a sushi ingredient anymore! She deserves a better brother."

Or a sister…

But Akira has something else to say, "You could've just asked her out if you want to."

!?

Now everyone felt confused.

Ayako is the first one that questions his words, "Kurusu, what are you-"

"You know, I have a feeling that you have been stalking her a lot recently," he ignores the girl's words, still having his eyes toward the twin-tailed one, "Yesterday you even told me to stay away from Sakura. When I asked if you loved her, you turn into a tsundere all of the sudden."

Rin's face is now red; red as if she is going to explode any time soon.

But what's worse is that the four girls are now closing their mouth, unable to comprehend what he just said.

"Tsundere… Rin…"

"Rin and Sakura…"

"I didn't… know…"

"STOP IT!" hearing those words, she can help herself anymore.

Her eyes now glaring at Akira, pulling him away from there, "What is wrong with you!?"

"Me? I'm just supporting Rin x Sakura pairing that may happen later. Don't worry, I won't do anything bad toward Sakura for you."

"Idiot! I told you to stop, didn't I!?"

"Also, I am not a Master of Red, if you are still wondering that."

Rin quickly grab on his words, glaring at her with her eyes still under effect of the previous tease (translation: almost crying), "What are you-"

"Just think of me as an outsider. I am on the same side of Ruler. The only time I'll interfere is when things get too dangerous around here."

Kurusu is now walking away, not before turning toward her, "Take care of your sister. With Shinji is out of commission, Sakura is back as the true Master of Lancer. She isn't exactly good with magecraft, so she will need help defending herself."

"Sakura is…?"

"Also, this will be your chance to get to know her. Don't worry, incest may have been bad, but yuri is nice."

!

"B-B-B…"

Red is her face's color once again.

"B-BAKA!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A bag is seen being pulled around by a man in red jacket as his flame-like red hair is ruffled up as the man mumbles, looking around the place, "So, this is Fuyuki? Not a bad place for a vacation."

"Vacation? You said we are here for the war?" a pink-haired person in blue sweater appears behind him, also having his eyes looking around the place, "But you're right, Master! This place feels really good!"

"I-I've told you before! Call me by my name! It's weird when you call me like that!"

"Alright-y, Touma-san!" the pink-haired being chuckles, "What about you call me by my name as well?"

The red-haired man sighs, "Are you an idiot, Rider? Using your True Name outright is forbidden, okay?"

He suddenly stretches out his arms, mumbling as he pushes himself forward, "Now, let's go and meet Ayaha-san first!"

The two now moving away from there, walking toward a taxi.

Somewhere near, a pale blonde-haired female in blue sailor outfit walks out from there, noticing the two as she turns to look at her hand.

Command Seals.

She quickly closes the hands off, before pulling her bag off from there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Touma!"

Touma Akagi and Rider enter a building, whereas Tsubasa and Ayaha quickly greeting them with the four now joining up with each other.

Rider salutes at both of the ladies, "Hello~, I am Astolfo, also known as Rider of Red! I am pleased to meet all of you!"

The two seems to be in shock, with the younger girl mumbles in confusion, "Touma, I didn't know one of the Paladins of Chalamagne is a girl…"

The red-haired one sighs, "You see, he's not a girl…"

"He?"

Astolfo chuckles, now shaking his Master's shoulder, "Master~, don't go and telling people my gender that easily~! It's embarrassing!"

"You are the one who is not supposed to tell people your name that easily…"

Ayaha chuckles, now speaking up to him, "At least Fortuna has their own representative for the war. I am actually quite surprised that you are the one being chosen for the war."

He nods, "I was sure it is going to be Kiria, Tsurugi or even Itsuki. Those three are like, the most fitted for the war."

The man suddenly turns toward Tsubasa, "By the way, Tsubasa. Itsuki is in America right now."

"Of course he is…" the girl now looks away.

She seems to be sulking over something as she can be heard whispering, "It must be so nice to be so popular with the ladies…"

"Well… that's just so like him," she puffs herself up, muttering out, "It's Itsuki-kun after all…"

Touma chuckles awkwardly before speaking to the older one, "Ayaha-san, how is the investigation with the abnormalities?"

Ayaha shrugs, "So far we couldn't find anything. We were so sure something close to Idolasphere happens here. At least that's what SEES told us about. We can't even be so sure if it's not something like Tartarus or the TV World."

"Man… to think there are other Mirage Masters like us…"

"It's not Mirage Masters, Touma. They are Persona users."

"That's what they called us too."

Ayaha explains, "You are not even close to them. They are empowered by their own façade turn into gods and goddess from the myth. You two are sharing the powers of heroes from other dimension."

Astolfo seems really excited, "I've seen what Touma-san can do! That Cain guy is soo cool! In my life as a Servant, I have never seen a hero like that!"

"You too, Touma-san!" he turns toward him, "You are also a hero for the kids! You might as well be a Heroic Spirit if you were to die."

"A hero even after death, huh?" Touma seems to be agreeing to his Servant, "Not too bad, Rider! I like that idea!"

Tsubasa is now chuckling, whispering at Ayaha, "Those two are really getting closer to each other."

"Well, Waver-san did told us that bonds between Masters and Servants will be important in order to survive the war."

The girl seems to have something in her mind, tilting her head as she questions, "Nee-san, why is Waver-san told us that? Shouldn't he be helping his side of the war?"

"I don't know. I asked him of that, but then he said that he wishes for fair matches between both sides."

"Still, making both Persona users and the magi community fighting each other just to settle a dispute… who's idea is this?"

Ayaha simply shrugs, turning her attention toward Touma.

She suddenly thinks of something, "Hey, Tsubasa. How about you bring those two around town this evening? It would be a good idea for them to know this place early on, especially when all Masters of Red did not meet together yet."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It is now evening, with Akira decided it is finally time for him to have a time for himself.

As of today, Sakura is now busy with her own life, as she seems to be sorting out on how she is going to live her life.

He was at her home just now, and Shinji is too afraid to even meet his sister in person.

Probably his guilt is too strong for social interaction. It's like he is the one that suffered the violation.

What a weird guy.

Well, he never sees the life of reformed person until today, so who is he to judge him?

With that, he can finally has a time of his own, exploring the town, meeting new people, finding places for items and stuff. Who know, maybe he can find new Confidants?

Probably not that last part. He should have all of the Arcana's ultimate Personas at this point already. Not to mention, he has Satanael, who he is still waiting to arrive from the other side of the world.

For now he should just waste some of his time in the evening, see if he can find a clue for what he is supposed to be doing.

He may have thought that his ability to open up Palaces is vital for this mission, but that ability is useless without having knowledge of its own existence.

"Um… can I… ask you a question or two?"

A female voice?

Akira turns his head around, now seeing a blonde female in blue sailor outfit is looking at him through her glasses, muttering at him, "If you don't mind, I would like to ask for a direction…"

Akira's head pops a question in it.

A foreigner? What is she doing here? Why is she holding that pole thing behind her back that suspiciously looks like a sword hiding in clothes; something you see in anime?

But the way she speaks, it is as if she found a really good Japanese class that also teaches their students how to speak Japanese with a proper accent.

"What kind of direction?" Kurusu wonders, shrugging his head off from all of those thought.

"I would like to know a direction for this place," she shows him a piece of paper with writings on it.

He shakes his head, "I'm sorry. I am also new here."

"I see. Never mind, then."

"If you want to, we can go and take a look around the place. It may be a good thing for me to know this place as well."

He sees the girl staring at him, before giving off a faint smile, "Sure."

Thus, the two's adventure begins as they move all over the place, walking around the place as she seems to be searching for a hotel.

"Ah, I know that hotel," one of those people they asked mutters, "I've been living here for ten years now. Of course I do know that place. It was where the old hotel collapsed."

"Collapsed?" Akira wonders of this strange tale, "Like, falling down?"

The man nods, "I was nearby when I saw what happened. The building just explodes and boom! It isn't there anymore. Rumor said that it was a gas leak. To be honest, I think this place has way too many gas leaks that there's no way it is a coincidental."

Interesting…

"In fact, that fire that happened in the same year is also said to be caused by gas leaks. If you ask me, that's just bullshit."

The man points out to where the hotel is with the two now moving forward to where the place could be.

As they keep on moving on their adventure, Kurusu suddenly opens up his mouth, "Sorry if I being rude, but are you a foreigner?"

The female nods with no problem at all, "I am. Why do you ask?"

He isn't really has any particular reason. She just reminded him of Ann Takamaki, one of his best of friends.

"Just wondering. I am Akira Kurusu, by the way. I came from Tokyo."

"Tokyo, huh?" the girl tilts her head.

She seems curious by his words before responding to him, "My name is Altria, from England."

"All the way from England?"

She nods, "I'm here for a short… vacation."

"Vacation?" he questions her hesitation, "All by yourself?"

She smiles at him, "Yeah…"

Soon they eventually reach the hotel, where the sky is already darkens and the two move onto the separate ways.

Akira now moves on, deciding to go back home and stay for the night, but in just few steps someone else appear to pull his attention off from him.

Jeanne is seen running around, looking for something as she runs toward one specific direction; the nearby port.

She looks worried and tensed, hurrying herself and disappearing from his sight.

Hmm…

Right now, in his mind, he is thinking on how he should go home quickly tonight.

But…

Within the records given in his brain, he learned that most of the fights between Servants happened at night in order to not getting caught by potential witnesses.

Maybe… just maybe…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Running in Metaverse and running in real life are never the same thing.

Not even a single member of the Phantom Thieves has ever felt tired running and jumping around various locations, not even someone like Futaba, who before joining them, pretty much lives out her life within her own room.

But none of them could do the same feat in real world, where their abilities are confined to their own limitations.

One time they able to do what they did in the Metaverse is when the world is merging with Mementos thanks to a certain grail.

Somehow the same logic applies to him as of now.

Thanks to his status as a Servant, he is able to run around without feeling tired as if he is inside the Metaverse, and so he runs forward, following Jeanne from behind and finding themselves reaching a port.

Wha!?

Reaching whatever Ruler's destination is, he can see clearly of a fight between a pink-haired Servant with a jousting lance in her hand fighting off against a blonde- wait, is that Altria?

Stopping on his track, Akira turns around to where he left the blonde girl, and is now utterly confused by the person he sees before him.

An impossibility.

Just now, he can feel that Altria is a normal person, but this person who looks like her is certainly a Servant.

Is there a way for Servant to hide their existence as one?

No, even if that's possible, there is no way she could just appear somewhere else far away.

But if a Master were to use their Command Spells, such feat is possible.

No, to think that one Master is foolish enough to use a Command Spell when the war barely begins…

Maybe it would be a good idea if he could just getting close toward the fight and investigate this himself.

From the side of the pink-haired Servant is a man with red hair that looks like as if his hair is made up of fire. He looks like he really is cheering on his Servant there.

Why is he calling his Servant with male pronoun? That Servant is clearly a female.

From the side of the blonde Servant is a white-haired female and… Shirou Emiya?

What on earth is he doing there?

Akira moves close to them, looking at the pink-haired Servant and Altria-look alike fighting against each other, with the clear indication that the former is losing.

That pink-haired Servant is really doing her best there, looking like she really does not want to just walk away and instead keeps on fighting.

Owh?

Someone just interfere the fight.

It's… it's that Lancer that fought him the first time he arrives here.

It is in the middle of the fight that the man decides to shove himself in, pointing his spear straight toward Alitra-like perso-

"Kurusu-kun?"

Akira quickly turns around, looking for whoever just called him by his name.

"Tsubasa? What are you doing here?" he asks his cousin, who is now standing behind him, looking at him with a confused face.

"I'm the one who is supposed to ask that question to you. You shouldn't be in here, the magi are going to kill you!"

She… she knows them?

She quickly grabs his hand, trying to pull him away from there, "Hurry up!"

He is not one to say decline someone's request, not when she is clearly wanting to pull him away judging by how much of a force she is using as of now.

Akira simply follows her lead and gets away from there…

… is what he is going to do…

What happens next is something he never thought would happen again.

The sky turns a bit darker than it is supposed to, and their surrounding has changed.

He and Tsubasa are supposed to be at the port, with some other characters alongside them.

Instead they are alone by themselves, standing on what appears to be a barren wasteland with so many swords sticking inside the earth around it.

This place… it feels like…

No, it IS a Palace! He can feel the similar air all Palaces give off.

Tsubasa is really shocked, looking all over the place as her mouth spills out, "This place… is this Idolasphere?"

The what now?

The girl seems to be really panic as she keeps on mumbling, "How do we get in here? Is there a door somewhere here? Or do we got kidnapped by a Mirage instead?"

What is she talking about?

"You…"

A voice pulls their attention away from each other, now making him turn to look at a man in torn up clothing, moving close to them.

"Are you here to get a help from the Great Hero?"

Both of them look at him with a confused look each.

Tsubasa speaks up first, "Great Hero? Who are you talking about?"

The man seems startled, "You… you didn't know who the Great Hero is? Did you even come here to ask for his help?"

"We don't even know who he is. I'm not sure I can ask for a help from a stranger."

"You…" the man looks down, looking disappointed with her words, "You heathen…"

!?

Akira steps forward, demanding an answer, "What did you just call us?"

"You heathen!" the man pulls his face up, "Everyone is in need of the Great Hero's help! If you don't need his help, then you are nothing more than a hindrance that should not be existed!"

His being suddenly pours out black goo, quickly turning into a group of floating flat creatures he knows as Kodama.

"M-Mirage!" Tsubasa calls out as she now steps in front of Akira, speaking out, "Don't worry, Kurusu-kun! I'm getting us out of here!"

 **"** Caeda, **Carnage Form!"**

Appearing out from her body, a female knightly figure riding a mechanical Pegasus soars up in the sky before entering back into her body, slowly turning her appearance.

Tsubasa, having turquoise hair, is now wearing outfit that looks it comes straight out of fantasy land; a white and pink fairy-like dress with black shorts underneath. She even has headpieces with feather motif.

Kurusu just stares at her, "Tsubasa… you are…"

Shaking his head, he feels no need to let her fight alone, now stepping forward as he calls out, **"Arsene!"**

Arsene's appearance matches the timing of his clothing turns into his Phantom Thieves outfit, making the girl in shock even more.

Arsene dishes out some of them away, giving the two some space.

"Kurusu-kun…"

Akira stares at him, having his mask back on as he sees the girl closing her mouth, clearly shaken up by him.

"You are… a Mirage Master?"

What did she just called him?

 **End chapter.**

 **Yes, I've decided that Tokyo Mirage Sessions will also be part of the merged world. Why? Because I like the game and Touma's stance of heroism is too god to be passed on, not when he could involved himself in the next Palace.**

 **Yes, the next Palace is exactly what you think it is.**

 **Now, let us play this game of "Guess the Keywords."**

 **All Palaces has three keywords if one ever try to access it. The keywords are 'The name of the ruler', 'The location of the Palace' and 'The form of distortion'.**

 **How about you try and guess those three keywords?**

 **Also, I still need a Servant for Assassin and Caster of Red and their Masters.**

 **Next: Akira will be joined by two idols from Fortuna, along with a trap.**


	7. Great Hero

Great Hero

Altria Pendragon Yggdmillennia felt like a lucky girl as of now.

For all of her life, her family has been nothing but a joke among those who bear the name Yggdmillennia.

Ever since the end of the Third Grail War of Fuyuki, Pendragon, like any other family of magi, decided to join the big clan of Yggdmillennia after the elder, Darnic Prestone Yggdmillennia give the chance for some of the lesser known families to be part of the bigger families.

This wish all started thanks to her family's failed research in an attempt to recreate Caliburn and Excalibur, two legendary swords wielded only by their ancestor, King Arthur Pendragon of Britain.

At first, after the long dead of the king himself and his illegitimate heir, Mordred, the family decided to indulge themselves in the art of magecraft, wishing to recreate the broken Sword of Appointment and subsequently restarted the era of glory within Camelot.

It is unknown if they really are King Arthur's royalty families, or just imposters wishing to have the name Pendragon be part of them, but unsurprisingly this research takes times and sources from them, turning these Pendragon nobilities into nothing more than lesser families of magi.

By joining Yggdmillennia, they must have wished that they are able to recreate the two swords, the sheath; Avalon and even the spear that holds the bridge between life and death itself, Rhongomyniad and retake the titles of nobilities for them.

Too bad what they made are Mystic Codes; simply Mystic Codes and not the fancier Noble Phantasms, something those four are known as.

What do these result instead are self-depreciation the family started, making fun of their incapability to even use Rhongomyniad when the weapon is clearly still laying around and inability to produce weapons as good as even Clarent.

But what does this has anything to do with Altria?

She has no idea how the name 'Arthur' and 'Altria' has anything to do with each other, but she knows that the name is a mockery of her ancestor, and the fact that she will have to carry the name of a pathetic family as the next heiress, something her cousin Mordred seems to be really laughing onto her face.

Even as the next heiress she is discarded from family business quite easily by her father, Gawain Pendragon Yggdmillennia when almost all Yggdmillennia families are busy with "something" in Trifas.

But with the Command Spells somehow just appear on her hand, she decided that she has a wish for the grail; a wish to not be associated to such family and to show them Altria is not just a joke name for them to bite onto.

Unfortunately for her, as she is now ready for her Servant summoning the same night as she reaches Fuyuki, she stumbled upon this strange human with an ability to summon a massive minotaur out of the ground, she realized her wish is now just a dream.

Now she lays there on the ground, battered up with her clothes torn up, bruises and blood all over her body, bones broken on her limbs and the red lines are no longer on her palm.

She also realizes that she is now stuck inside a strange kingdom with nobody but weird monsters in it. She sees a person, standing close to her, looking down at her with a face similar to her, but with a wide smile and yellow eyes.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Akira thought he has seen everything.

Metaverse. Shadows. Personas. And now Servants. Magecraft. Magi.

When he heard that he is going to go to another world, mixed up of his world and others, he thought he won't be seeing another Persona user.

He thought that he is going to be the sole person with Persona among people who can use magic in real life.

He thought he is going to be the odd one.

But then Sakura get her Persona.

Maybe he should have expected the possibility of having Persona users appearing before him; that he is not the first one to have such ability.

Now that he is looking at his cousin wearing a more absurd costume after a mechanical flying horse entering her body, and seeing her face without any sort of mask, he has one option of explanation; she is a Persona user through a different means.

She is first confused with their whereabouts and calling them Ido… Ido what? Whatever she called this place means that she is not familiar with Palace. She also called a Shadow as a Mirage.

The only term that is the same as what he knows is that fire spell she is using right now to burn of that Kodama in front of them right now.

She called it, "Agilao!"

With that kind of connection, obviously she is one aspect from his world, and a Persona user just like him. Thanks to the current world's timeline, he can perfectly deduce that she is not new of this.

Quickly shaking his head off, he takes out his gun and tries to help her from afar, shooting his gun straight to Kodama.

"Tsubasa, let me help!" he charges forward, taking off his mask and now summoning Garuda to his side, "Agidyne!"

He shoots out a huge flame toward the floating spirit, burning it alive as it is now disappears from their sight.

"I knew it!" Tsubasa screams out, moving close to him, "You are a Mirage Master!"

"Mi-what?" the words somehow caught him off guard.

But then she looks at him, having some sort of thought in her head, "Wait, no. You don't seem to have a Performa with you. Are you perhaps a Persona user instead?"

Wait, those two terms are not the same?

She still rambles as she stares at him, "You changed your clothes like me, so you should have been the same as me. But then you summon more than one… um Mirage/Persona thing. I have never seen anybody did that, but I've seen Aigis-san summoned different Personas once."

There's another Wild Card?

Wait, no… why is he so surprised? He already seen Akechi did that with Robin Hood and Loki…

Still… knowing that before them both, there are other Wild Card Persona users who may have signed contracts with Velvet Room, the world must have been in danger like all the time and he just so happens to be selected by Yaldy as the next Wild Card…

He really needs to ask Igor about this…

If only Lavenza just stands around the town with blue door beside her like always…

"That's the heathens that killed one of us!" more people with yellow eyes now running toward them, pointing fingers at them and closing in, "Get them!"

Akira notices them first, now calling out the girl beside her, "Get ready! We will have to fight them off first if we were going to get out of here."

She simply nods, holding her spear close to her.

The group is going to get close to them, but then something jumps in before the two, wearing red cloth around his right hand, covering some of his naked, muscular upper half as the red-haired man now strikes some of them down with blades of black and white.

The ones that didn't get strike stop on track, startling heavily from his appearance, "Wha- It's the Great Hero!"

Great Hero?

Akira has his eyes turning toward this strange man with red hai-

"Emiya-san?" Tsubasa cuts off his observation, calling out to the man first before he could assess the identity of this man.

Hmm… he does looks like Shirou Emiya… but a bit too muscular…

Could it be… they are inside his Palace?

He has a Palace?

Those who have Palaces are either those who views the world in perverse manner or those who is in the state of suicidal despair.

Those who view the world in perverse manner are, simple to say, bad people.

Shirou is not a bad person. He would do a lot of things that help other people, like fixing heaters, or cleaning up the club room till night.

But then he looks happy enough with what he is doing that it is impossible to see him thinking of killing himself like Futaba did.

…

But Futaba spent her life being Medjed; exposing corrupted people are stuff alike.

Is… Is Shirou… alright?

He returns to reality, now looking at Shadow Shirou, who glares straight toward those groups of Shadows people.

One of those people kneel before him, calling out to him, "Great Hero! Forgive us! We are simply doing our job of finding people in need of help!"

The other one screams out, "Great Hero, those people behind you claim to not need of your help! Only heathens would say something like that!"

"Really?" Shadow Shirou is now glaring straight at him, "But you guys are ganging up against them… doesn't that mean they need help after all? Especially when there's a girl here."

Not want to be rude, by there's something wrong with that last statement.

He now pulls his blades up, growling at them, "In order to be like the Legendary Hero himself, I will become the hero of justice for these two. _Trace On!_ "

What was that?

The two blades now lighting up with green lines with Shirou charges forward, slashing all of the shadows, killing them all with few strokes.

Now… this is another thing he did not expect to see today, or ever.

A Palace ruler fighting and killing his own denizen… Is he really a ruler of is he just a cognition?

But then who is the ruler?

With all are no longer there, Shirou turns toward the two, moving close to the two, "Are you two okay? Do you need any more help?"

"W-we're fine…" Tsubasa mutters, looking at him, "Emiya-san, what are you doing here?"

"Here?" he looks around, looking confused, "This is my Battlefield."

"Battlefield?" she seems confused with the location's name.

"Yeah," he nods, "This is where I train myself to be as legendary of a hero like the Legendary Hero himself."

His eyes seems to be looking toward somewhere, and from where they stand, Akira can clearly see the landmark which he may be looking at right now.

Far from there, close to what could have been a campsite, a huge statue is seen in there, standing straight among some rubble-like base.

The statue is of a man with messy hair style, wearing a coat as he holds onto a boy in his arm, looking straight at the boy.

It seems the statue is crying, but he can also see a smile on the statue's face. Is the statue crying out of happiness?

Before he is able to ask the detail of the statue, more Shadows appear close to them.

One of them calls the hero out, "Great Hero, we need your help!"

Shirou quickly turns toward them, nodding at them, "I'll be there."

With the Shadows now disappearing from their sight, he turns back at the two, "Then, if you need my help, always feel free to come and meet me. I will do anything to help. It is the work of a hero of justice after all."

He runs off from there, leaving them to themselves.

Akira quickly grabs Tsubasa's hand, muttering words to her, "Follow me."

The two then moves away from there, not realizing a group of people in masks nearby, watching them as the two disappear from the sight.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shirou Emiya is a male student of Homurahara and is widely known for his literal kindness.

Every day he is looking for an excuse to help people out. He fixed a lot of stuff the school has to offer, to the point they saved up so much money not doing paying for any maintenance work.

He also sometimes offers his hand in cleaning his class and a clubhouse.

For him, those are nothing but training for his path to become a hero of justice.

Shirou has been obsessing over this moniker ever since he was little.

It was when he was saved from the fire of Fuyuki long ago by his now-adopted-father, Kiritsugu Emiya. He saw the man smiled and cried with so much happiness when he first saw the man's face.

He wants to smile like that. He wants to cry like that.

That is why he is passionate of being a hero now. It is the only path he felt worth of.

It is the only path he knows he can be like _that_ man…

His father, along with his mother, Irisviel von Einzbern, now returned home after so long staying overseas, doing whatever job they have out there; bringing home news of an upcoming war between magi.

They even brought with them a girl only wished to be known as Saber, who now sticks around his mom like a bodyguard.

He knows that Saber is a Servant; a hero of the past who is capable of slaying more dangerous enemies.

But she is but a girl, and a girl shouldn't go out there, fighting for her life. It is a job of a man.

This is what he has in his mind when he steps between her and that Lancer guy.

He was joining his mother and Saber for a walk after she adamantly asking for him to be her tour guide after so long not staying in there.

But in the middle of the road, they met up with the enemies; another man with red hair with his Servant Rider, another girl.

He wants to help her, but the two ladies seem really eager to "fight like knights" that they decide for a more honorable fight, making him staying in the corner close to his mother.

Kiritsugu has told him not to interfere in a fight between Servants, but he can't just do that, not when people are killing each other here!

People die when they are killed!

When that blue-clad Lancer joins the fight, that's when he decided to jump into the fight.

 **"Trace On!"**

Pulling out a nearby pipe, he strengthening it with Reinforcement, quickly striking him by surprise, hoping for him to be pushed away.

He is so deadly wrong.

Instead of actually taking the man by surprise, Lancer kicks him off after breaking his pipe with his attention is still toward Saber.

It seems the man really doesn't want to fight her, but has been ordered to do so.

He and Rider of Red move forward to attack the blonde girl once more, but luckily a silver-haired female in red appears before them both.

" **Trace On!** " she exclaims with a smile on her face, slowly pulling out two blades of white and black, deflecting both spears from both Servants.

"Idiot!"

Shirou, who is still hurt by the kick, turns to his side, now seeing a familiar schoolmate running into the scene, approaching him and helping him to stand up, "I have never seen an idiotic magus like you before! Don't you know you are not supposed to face enemy Servants with mediocre spell like that!? Your dad is correct; you really are an idiot!"

The red-haired boy mutters out loud, staring straight toward her, "I just… I want to save Saber…"

"Saving a Servant!?"

Rin quickly turns toward Irisviel, screaming out at her, "Ms. Emiya, did you tell him not to do just that!? Did you tell him that Servants are called Heroic Spirits for reasons!?"

Iri seems startled by her attitude, "I… I did, but he can be really stubborn…"

Throughout the conversation, Shirou manages to look away, now seeing the red-haired Master just stares at him.

He can see from his face, the man looks really uncomfortable looking at him.

But then he pushes himself off from her, breathing heavily as he now looking at the fight between four Servants.

Lancer is now having his fight alone with Saber as it seems the newly appeared Servant decides to take on Rider instead, having the two fights to happen a bit far from each other.

The four keep on fighting nonstop, till suddenly another being appear like a comet, crashing down in the middle of the fight.

He sees between all four of them, another female, white haired, tanned skin and in red and black attire, clad in fire, stare at all of them before turning toward Lancer and Rider.

"Retreat for now," she speaks up to the two, "We still do not have a full team of Masters and Servants and my Master do not wish to face the enemies with less number by our side."

Lancer snickers before jumping away from there, while Rider simply shrugs, regroup with her Master as the two walk away from there.

The female now turns around, looking at Saber as she mutters, "As a fellow Saber, I would like to have the honor of fighting you the next time we meet."

She jumps and disappears from there, leaving the Blue Team all by themselves.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Touma and Astolfo are now walking back home, slowly as the two did not speak even for once.

This, of course, irks the crap out of the talkative Servant, and so she enacts what the adjective means, "Man, what a fight! That Saber is really strong, and so is that other Servant, but I can't tell what her class is. Maybe she is a Rider like me?"

But he did not mutter a single word.

Rider quickly turns toward his Master, looking confused, "Master, why have you been so silent? Is something bothering you?"

Touma is quickly snapped out of his train of thought, quickly turning toward his Servant, "Ah… nothing… I was just thinking about that guy who attacked Lancer."

Astolfo is quickly being reminded of that, "Oh, you mean that red-haired kid? If I didn't know any better, I would've thought that he is your relative. People nowadays really do have strange hair colors."

"You are the one to talk. Red hair is way more common than pink hair."

Rider quickly shows a motion of being hurt, "Wah, your words hurt me, Master. How could you do such thing?"

Touma simply ignores him, with his mind is still onto that kid's actions.

Astolfo quickly brings up another topic, "Master, where is your friend? She is supposed to be on the lookout, watching out for any civvies, right?"

"Now that you mentioned her…"

The two quickly turns their heads around, looking for Tsubasa as their eyes caught what could have been mistaken as "two people teleported before them".

As the statement goes, Tsubasa and a messy-haired man pops out before them, with the girl breathing heavily as she mutters, "Those people are relentless…"

She pulls her head up and quickly stands up straight in shock, "Touma, you're here? How's the fight?"

But instead of answering her question, he instead gives off another question, "Where did you come from? Who is that kid beside you?"

It seems the night just gets complicated…

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

At least not as complicated as whatever inside the mind of Saber of Blue right now.

After the fight with the other team's Servants, they have finally returned to the Emiya's home residence, bringing in Shirou for further treatment. It seems Lancer kicks with some serious force there.

With the bell now rings, the front door opens up as little Illyasviel opens up the door, looking up and the first thing she sees is a downed Shirou, in which she immediately responds with a huge scream of concern, "O-Onii-chan! What happened to you!?"

"Illya, would you please prepare the couch for your brother?" Irisviel asks nicely of her as she nods, quickly going to the living room and clean up the mess of the couch (seems to have some junk food on it, and she claimed it was Leysritt's).

As Saber goes to close the door, she sees Archer approaching Illyasviel with a wide smile on her face, hearing her mumbling, "My~, what a cute little thing you are~!"

Now that she sees the two close to each other, she can't help but wonder how the two share so many resemblances. They both have the same hair color, the same skin tone and even the same eyes.

Does Einzbern has a hero in their family's ancestral? She does not have the answer; she is not summoned from Throne of Heroes like others. Her knowledge is as far as what the grail gave her.

The door soon opens up again, with her Master, Kiritsugu now entering the home, quickly making himself known for them all, "Sorry I am late, Iri. I had to find the store that still opens that sells the medicine needed."

Rin quickly stands up, facing toward him, "Where were you when this happened? Shouldn't you be with them when your own Servant started fighting?"

"I couldn't risk showing myself to the enemy. Red Lancer's Master knows that too. They weren't around him," he responds to her as he tries to help his son out.

"You saw the fight?" Rin is shocked.

Archer nods, "He is. I saw him on the rooftop nearby."

"And you didn't even bother telling me that!?" Tohsaka is now turning toward her in furious.

She quickly looks away from her eyes, "He was using a sniper rifle. I figure that he wishes to conceal himself to provide backup for Saber if anything goes bad. That's usually how the Magus Killer did his job."

Her words caught Emiya's eyes, "That's an impressive knowledge for a Servant. Did the grail give you that?"

"Nope. It's a personal knowledge of mine," she gives him a wide smile.

Saber simply stares at the two. She couldn't help but feeling warm looking at the two interact with each other; it almost felt like they have met and fought together before.

Somehow that feeling hurts her.

Even with the second summoning into the grail war, she has never spoken to her own Master, not even a single word. There is always this strange feeling of awkwardness between them.

There is a tinge of jealousy inside her. Maybe she wish to be able to speak to her Master like Archer did to hers?

No! She is the King of Britain, Artoria Pendragon. As a king, emotions are nothing but a source of downfall of an empire. Emotions are what making Camelot disappear from the map of today's world.

Right now, that Holy Grail will be her priority and with that power of wish-making, she will wish to rewind all times where her people suffer and do what is right for them.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Your cousin is a Persona user…" Touma mumbles, "And he can go to an Idolasphere-like place?"

It seems that anytime someone caught him doing something strange, this home ended up becoming a place to discuss all there is to say.

Just like with Sakura and Jeanne, Tsubasa now brings in her friend, Touma Akagi and his Servant, Rider into this home for further discussion of the "magic trick" they made before them.

Akira speaks up, explaining what a Palace is toward them all, and each them seems to have concern over what the place basically is.

"A strong, distorted desire turned into a world of its own?" The young Oribe mumbles, trying to take in whatever he just told them, "Such thing is even possible?"

Touma quickly responds to her, "I can see it being possible. We have a 25th hour filled with shadows, a world inside TV and even a dimension within buildings, a world made up of people's desire is not far from that."

Akira simply looks at him speaking all of those stuffs he never heard of. 25th hour? TV world? Are those how previous Persona users have their adventures?

He then speaks up, wondering, "Then, you guys can use Persona too?"

Tsubasa quickly speaks up to him, "No, the one you saw me called out is my friend, Caeda. She is a Mirage, a group of otherworldly heroes. She is not a Persona at all."

Touma joins in the conversation, "The one who partners up with Mirages are called Mirage Masters. They basically Persona users, but quite different."

Akira then turns to look at Rider, who he has noticed has been staring at him with quite a thinking face for a while now and finally speaks out loud, "But you are a Servant too, right?"

"Eh?"

"Rider, what are you talking about?" the red-haired fellow demands an answer, "He is clearly a human."

"Not really a human. I can tell that he is a Servant, even though he has some sort of human-like feeling to it. The Servant part of him is really faint, unless you stare at him long enough."

Really? Is that why Lancer couldn't figure him out before?

Wait, doesn't that mean Tohsaka's Servant can tell about him already?

Tsubasa seems confused, "How can there is a Servant and a human at the same time?"

Rider quickly shakes his head, "I don't know the detail, but I've seen one before. I have this faint memory of meeting one in one of the instance of me being summoned. There are this type of Servants called Pseudo-Servant, where a Servant instead possessing a human's body instead."

Damn… didn't know that's a common knowledge…

All look at him, with Tsubasa is now even more confused, "But he really is my cousin. You really are Akira Kurusu, right?"

"I am…"

Rider tilts his head, "Maybe you are Demi-Servant instead? A human absorbing the power of Servant? Either way, you clearly are a Servant."

Touma sighs, shrugging his head off, "Can we not fret on the detail? Whatever it is, you two are clearly doing something in that palace."

With that, Akira explains to them on the whole "changing heart" business, which seems to be accepted by them quite easily.

Tsubasa springs a question, "You mean that, in that Palace we were in, you can still someone's heart and make them repent? That seems to be a good way to make criminals confess. Why aren't the police getting this power instead?"

Akira quickly shakes his head, "Within the Palace, the Rulers are in the state of vulnerability at best. The best thing you could do is make them scared of their life to the point of willingly repenting their crimes and let you steal the Treasures easily. At worst, you can just kill the Rulers' shadows and in turn give them mental shutdown instead."

"Wait!" Touma suddenly stands up, "Are you saying that those mental shutdown cases are all thanks to the whole Palace thing? Does that mean there are others like you too?"

He nods, "Quite possibly. I have been wondering who have been going around, making people fainted left and right."

Tsubasa now turns toward her friend, "This is big, Touma! We should be telling the SEES about this!"

"You're right," the redhead nods, "If someone is capable of such horrifying thing to other people, then they need to be stopped!"

The girl suddenly realized something, "Ah, but nee-san won't come home tonight. She is too busy with her work again."

"It's already too late to just go out and meet her, right?" his eyes now turning to the window, seeing how dark the sky outside is, "We should just wait till tomorrow to tell her that."

Tsubasa nods in agreement.

Her head then turns to see her cousin, "Kurusu-kun, about your work as the Phantom Thief…"

What about it?

"Can I join you?"

"Join me?" Akira wonders in confusion, "Why?"

She responds to his question almost immediately, "We are here because there is a report that a door to Idolasphere can be seen around here. Helping you out may give us a clue of that."

"Idolapshere?" he questions the term.

Master of Rider replies, "It's a place where Mirages roaming around. Their gates are inside or near some of the buildings and Mirages can kidnap people into this place. This is why this place needs to be contained if found."

Tsubasa speaks some more, "Besides, you said that a Palace is formed when someone has a really strong desire twisted and distorted that often harming others. There is no way I can just ignore that."

Akira quickly mentions to her, "That's not the only way a Palace could form, though it is a common way. Another type of Palace is for those who are in deep despair borderline suicidal."

"All the more reason not to leave that place alone!"

Touma joins her, "I would like to join you too. A hero should help those in need!"

Astolfo stands up, "Master, what about me? I am a literal Heroic Spirit. I should be helping out too! As a knight, there is no way for me to ignore the plea of help!"

Akira sighs, shrugging, "I suppose it would be great to have friends around. Exploring Palace alone is way too dangerous, even for me. Sakura won't be around after all."

"Wait, Sakura?" his cousin notice his word, "As in, Sakura Matou? She's a Persona user too?"

"She just got her Persona. It was when we explored her brother's Palace."

"Owh?" she seems amazed, "So that's what happened to him! That's how a change of heart happened?"

Touma suddenly looks around the place, with his eyes covering all grounds before mumbling, "It's already close to midnight, so we should get to sleep now."

"You're staying with us?" Joker wonders.

Astolfo excitedly speaks up, "We're going to be housemates for now! We should get along."

He grabs the man's hands, both of them as he shows his bright smile to him.

Akira felt tons of discomfort coming from his smile, but he can simply nod as a responsive action.

Oribe stands up, speaking up to the two guests, "Then, I should show you where your room is. Follow me then!"

With the three now disappear from his sight, Kurusu sighs as he rests his body onto the couch. He also rests his face as he closes his eyes.

Things are getting way more hectic than his previous life. Holy Grail War… other Persona users…

It's official. He will be asking so many questions to Igor the next time he gets to go to a Velvet Room.

BZZZZZTTT….

WEEEEEIIIIUUUUU…..

?

Why is there a sound of radio nearby?

He slowly opens up his eyes.

The TV is turned on.

That's weird. He didn't remember turning the TV on.

Maybe his butt did that for him?

Akira goes to reach the remote, noticing that the remote is actually near the TV, which is quite far from where he is sitting at.

Oookaaayy….?

How is that possible?

His eyes couldn't help but drawn to the TV, as it seems trying to reconfigure itself before showing something on the screen.

It shows a blonde female, wearing a royal garb as she smiles wide toward the camera, "I welcome thee to my castle, and this is where I prove my worthiness as the heiress of the Pendragon family."

Akira stands up in shock, "A-Altria!?"

 **That's it for today.**

 **Yes, TV World is here. How? I shall explain that next time.**

 **No, Dark Hour won't be here. Mementos can fill up that role easily.**

 **Who is the Saber of Red? I'm sure most of you can figure her out already. Who is her Master? I'm sure most of you can't do that. Hints: Her Master is already appeared in the story.**

 **Next: A new transfer student is supposed to be in Homurahara but she is stuck in a different dimension. Somebody else watched the show and decided to be a hero. Akira is about to look for his new friend as well, but a certain heiress decide to finally confront him about it and now he had to face off against her Servant.**


	8. The World inside the TV

The World inside the TV

Until few years ago, Yu Narukami is just a normal kid that has nothing to do with the moonlit world.

It is not until he was transferred to Inaba that fates decided to play around with his life.

At the moment he arrives in the rural town, a serial killing immediately took place.

It is no ordinary killing by the way. It is a killing using the strange world inside the TV. The victims of the murder are all being thrown into the TV, and the dangerous denizens of the TV world, alongside its toxic atmosphere slowly kill the victims, having their bodies found days later.

There, Yu gained the power of Persona summoning, even getting new friends in his journey whereas they created the Investigation Team, a team of wannabe detectives (with a real detective in the team later on) as they try to stop the murder from happening after some of them are at the receiving end of the attempted murder.

At one point they nearly capture someone believed to be a culprit of the murders, Taro Namatame.

Unfortunately while everyone tries so hard to get to him, he ended up kidnapped Yu's cousin, who he sees as his lovely little sister that he care so much.

The poor little girl's frail body could not handle the toxicity of the fog in the TV World, and the Investigation Team took their sweet time defeating a giant Shadow appeared from Namatame himself.

Nanako Dojima is… dead…

He avenge her death by throwing Namatame into the TV World, but that did nothing.

Throughout those years of despair, he found himself walking the earth, looking for something for him to take his mind of his guilt.

As he goes on, he learned that Investigation Team has been officially disbanded when all of the members were forced to transfer away from each other when the fog in Inaba, caused by Namatame, are deemed too harmful.

Inaba is now a ghost town, with rumor stating that it was a battlefield between Shadows and a different team of Persona users.

And within his journey, he found himself meeting someone named Shirou Kotomine, who he ended up befriended after saving him from the TV World with the help of Marie.

The man told him all about magi, and even helping him open up his magical circuit and putting him into the Clock Tower.

When asked why he helped him, the tanned priest simply stated that he is fascinated by someone who "allied with a god of Shinto without any repercussion."

At some point the man also asked for his help in "bringing salvation for all mankind", but Yu simply denies his offer.

He does, however, asking for a rain check, in case if he ever truly needs his help.

Having him joining the Clock Tower somehow lead him to meeting this young, blonde little girl, who reminded him of Nanako when he first sees her.

She seems shy when first sees him, hiding her face behind a computer.

A girl, in Clock Tower, is playing with a computer.

She seems really fascinated with the computer, even saying that she wish that she is a hacker instead of a magus.

That is after she finally opens up to him.

Her name is Rin Tohsaka, and apparently she is from a branch family of the main Tohsaka lineage, and is there because she is supposed to be waiting for her older cousin, who also has the same name as hers, strangely enough, to play with her.

The girl was quite talkative, and as she speaks to him, she mentioned of a Holy Grail War, a tournament with the victor being given a wish-making artifact capable of any wish, even reviving the dead.

That's why he is in Fuyuki now; aiming to get the grail all for himself. He cares naught for whatever that Magus Killer rambles about something strange about the grail. If there is something that could finally make his uncle happy again, this will be it.

"Otou-sama…"

His servant, Caster, snapped him off from his trance on the rain outside, quickly pulling himself toward her, "What is it?"

Caster, or rather, Tamamo no Mae, the spirit of a demon fox who Izanagi inside him recognized as his daughter, Amaterasu, points her finger toward the TV as she seems to be complaining of something, "That TV is strange. I didn't even turn it on and it's already turning by itself. It even shows Saber as if she owns some sort of TV show or something."

"Wha-!" Yu quickly stands up, looking toward where the TV is at.

She is telling the truth.

"I welcome thee to my castle, and this is where I prove my worthiness as the heiress of the Pendragon family," Saber speaks up as she seems to be holding a sword, looking straight toward the castle, "Come to this castle of mine, and show me if you could even defeat the king of Camelot herself."

The screen abruptly shuts off, leaving only the confused Fool all by himself, with his eyes fixed on the screen of the TV.

Somehow, while questions over questions are playing inside his brain, the sound and the visual of the white noise played put him in some sort of trance.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Somewhere else in Fuyuki, Shirou Emiya also witnessed the strange TV show while he was all alone, resting up outside at the living room for some reason, also having questions inside his head.

But, instead of questioning the whereabouts of an unknown stranger in blue sailor uniform, he expresses concern toward a certain hero, "Why did I just saw Saber on the screen?"

As his eyes are now focusing on the white and black streaks on the screen, he unconsciously standing up, slowly moving toward the lighted part of the screen.

His right hand moves forward, trying to reach the screen when a voice calls out to him, "Onii-chan, what are you doing?"

His sister, Illya just stands there near the stairs, rubbing her eyes as she mumbles the question in a sleepy manner.

"I was…" he hesitates for a moment, looking back at the TV, "Switching off the television. I was about to go to sleep anyway."

Illya simply nods, walking away as she climbs the stairs, back to her room.

Still feeling the pain of the injury, Shirou decided to just sleep at the living room for the rest of the night as he lies on the couch once more.

He moves his eyes and scans the TV with prana, but he sees nothing wrong with it.

Sighing, he decided that he was just seeing an illusion. He has never felt such pain in his life after all.

Back then when he was a little, where he always mistook magic circuits as something you had to create from your nerves, the pain he felt from some of the failures he made were bad, but his body simply heals up very quickly.

Somehow, lately, he felt tons of pain when he messed something up.

It's like for the first time ever, he feels a huge amount of pain all at once.

Though, that won't deter him from his dream to be an ally of justice. That should be part of being a hero after all.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

While the redheaded magus did nothing to the TV, Akira, on the other hand, has his hand already moving into the TV.

Huh?

That sentence felt so wrong, as if it shouldn't make sense no matter how you said it.

But it is the truth.

Drawn to the noise of the TV, Kurusu tries to put his hand into the TV, and now finding his hand slowly being sucked into the screen.

"Kurusu-kun!"

He felt a tug from behind, pulling himself off from the screen as he and whoever is behind him falls onto the floor.

The white screen switches off by itself, with him now looking at the one who just saved his life; Tsubasa.

The girl looks around, quickly finding herself looking at her cousin, "Kurusu-kun, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah…" the Fool mutters, trying to help her and himself standing up, "What… what was that? The TV… I touched the TV and it just…"

"It's the TV World."

What?

What kind of strange combination of words she just spoken of?

Wait, he remembers of her saying those words earlier.

He didn't know what that thing is, but he knows it has something to do with other Persona users.

"What is a TV World?" he springs a question.

Instead of answering, she responds with, "I'll tell you that tomorrow, okay? It's already midnight. We should be sleeping tonight if we didn't want to go to the school late again."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It was a bright, sunny day.

During this type of day, it is very normal to see kids running around, playing what games they could think of.

What is not normal to see is a young boy standing all by himself in shades under a tree, practicing his magecraft.

First he focus his prana, slowly turning his nerve into-

"Kid, you shouldn't be doing that. Nobody practices an emergency action when they don't need to."

The practice is interrupted, with the young red-headed boy quickly loses control of his prana. His nerves, instead of turning into magical circuits as he intended to, burns off his arms after exploding.

The boy quickly turns toward the source of the voice, clearly annoyed by this interruption.

Turning to the side, his face instead turning silenced.

He is looking at a dark-skinned man in tattered brown huge cloak, covering his whole body as he seems to have a noticeable white hair, even if it doesn't seem to be much of hair.

The man looks like he is resting under the tree, with his face shows some sort of exhaustion and tiredness.

He also notices that at one spot of the cloak is a huge red mark; he is clearly bleeding.

"This?" the man notices the boy's eyes looking directly toward the wound, "It's nothing, really. This isn't even that bad. I've had worse injuries than this one."

Injuries? Was he involved in some kind of a fight?

"Don't waste your time minding other people's business," the man mutters, looking away.

He slowly pushes himself up, as much as possible with the red mark is apparent to the boy of what it really is; an old, frozen blood.

The man, at least, isn't injured on the outside.

Breathing heavily, the man find himself still leaning on the tree behind him.

His eyes now turning toward the kid, "Where are your parents? Didn't they teach you not to get close to a stranger?"

The kid simply responds with, "My dad and my mom are busy outside of Japan. They left me with my sister and their two maids."

Somehow, the man smiles, even if the smile doesn't seem intentional on his part.

He even whispers to himself, "Isn't that a good thing? You should take advantage of that situation while you can."

The man turns back to him, wondering of something, "Kid, your parents are magi, right?"

The boy nods.

"Don't worry," the man speaks up to him, "I am also one. Though, I am bad of being a magus."

KLAK!

With that, something falls off from his cloak, gaining the attention of the young red-headed child.

A gun.

The man quickly grabs the gun, putting it inside his cloak as he mutters, "Shouldn't have let a kid saw this thing…"

The kid is now wary of him. Slowly, he asks a question some may not ask, "Are you… a bad person?"

"Bad?" the man responds to him, "You mean, like, evil?"

The man is now looking straight at him, giving off an unpleasant feeling coming out from him.

The man then simply sighs, "You're right. I am an evil person. Just now I've shot down a cruise ship with people in it, with my own magecraft. Pretty evil, is it not?"

With those words muttered, the man finds himself fallen once more, as he continues, "If being evil is what it takes to be a hero… I'll gladly be that way."

The man seems to be lamenting on himself, with his expression shows some sort of feeling. The kid sees this, interpreting this as some form of regret.

The kid opens up his mouth, "Mister, is being a hero a bad thing?"

"A bad thing? I don't know. I've lose that dream a long time ago. When I was your age, I made a promise to my dad to realize his dream of becoming a hero. I failed to keep that promise."

The man looks down, "Now I am too old for that dream… just like my dad…"

"A hero… is to save other people… but what I did is anything but that."

The young boy keeps on looking at him. He sees the feelings he emitted, is something similar to the smile he sees from his father not too long ago.

It is not the same, but it is quite similar. He does not know what that feeling is, but now he wanted to avoid feeling this one.

The man turns toward him once more, "Kid, a magical circuit is not one to be made, but something that is already existed inside you. You have a maid, right? Go pester her about that. If she is who I think she is, I'm sure she'll give up and help you with that."

What is this?

The man suddenly gives him a piece of advice for some reason. Why would he do that?

The man sighs, "I am going to regret doing this."

He now stands up, taking out two guns with blades attached onto it as he starts twirling the weapons around before gripping on them firmly.

The young boy now has his eyes fixated on the black and white blades. He sees the blades as something cool, as if he is really drawn to them.

"Gotta go, kid. I have a job to do."

"Wait!" the young kid calls out to him, "What's your name?"

Somehow, he really wants to know this man's name.

The man snickers, "I have no name?"

Eh?

"I've long since discarded whatever name I had. It is not even a real name of mine."

The kid speaks up, "I'm Shirou Emiya."

"I know, kid. I know."

The young kid now sees the man slowly disappears into nothingness… what?

Wait, hold on. What just happened?

Where did the man go?

"You're here."

The kid's head quickly turns around, now seeing a man in suit, standing near him as he quickly speaks up to the man, "Dad, you're home…"

"I had a bit of work here. Your mom is at home right now."

His father's phone suddenly rings as he turns around, answering the machine, "Kiritsugu here. The ship's gone? It was blown off in the middle of the sea? A nuclear bomb is in there? Are you sure about that? It was going to the port here… I see…"

Shirou heard of this conversation.

Blown ship?

That man from earlier told him that he just shot a ship with people in it…

No, the ship was heading toward here.

That man just saved his life, and everyone else in here.

He is a hero… just like his father is…

The kid grips his hand. He found what he wants to be in his life.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shirou wakes up suddenly.

He just saw a dream he never thought he would see.

He then turns to the side, seeing Saber sitting close to him.

"Saber…" he mumbles, "You are… here?"

The blonde woman now turns toward him in confusion. She seems to be watching a magical girl anime along with Illya.

The little girl also notices of him waking up, as she quickly walks close to him, "Onni-chan, it's time to go to school!"

"Ah… yeah…"

As he tries pulling himself up, Saber quickly speaks up with a concern look on her face, "How's your injury?"

"It's nothing. I can at least go to school by myself."

"Should I follow you there? The enemy might use you to get to Master."

"I can take care of myself. I am a man after all," Shirou dismisses her, now standing up as he groggily walks out from the living room and back to his room.

Kiritsugu enters the room, staring straight to where the stairs is.

He then turns toward Saber as his Servant notices his stare.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad?"

As they are going to the school together, Tsubasa has decided to explain everything she can to Akira.

The girl responds to his question, "SEES for short. They started as a school club back in Tatsumi Island, but then grow into their own thing as time went on and started to become an official group under Kirijo Group. They were reformed as one after an incident in Inaba before."

She continues with her explanation, "Now, almost all Persona Users are members of the SEES. Fortuna made an alliance with them since we Mirage Masters are almost like them in some way, so if anything, we can inform each other and even ask for their helps if we needed to."

Kurusu springs a question, "Did they have anything to do with the TV World?"

"Not really, but some of the members had been in there before. A friend of mine, Rise-senpai told me that the TV World is a place where some of people's inner conflicts are manifested as a Shadow self and at some point, even created a dungeon of their own with that conflict as its theme."

"That sounds a lot like a Palace to me," Fool responds to her words.

"It is, but it's more of people's guilt over something most of the time," Oribe corrects him as she resumes, "If a Shadow appears before them, the Shadow will keep on pushing their conflicts onto them, forcing them to deny them and in turn, the Shadows will grow stronger and will endanger their original selves."

"It's different than Palace then," Akira concludes, "If a Palace is formed from guilt, a Shadow of the ruler will appears and being hostile to us Phantom Thieves, but it is more of trying to protect the ruler, even helping them overcoming their guilt on purpose. One Shadow I met even contributing in becoming a Persona willingly that helped us against a really strong enemy."

"Really!?" his cousin seems shock over this, "I've heard that all Shadows are dangerous beings before, so this is the first time I've heard one being so nice."

He reminds her, "Remember back in the Palace yesterday? That Shadow that looks like Shirou helped us against those enemies before."

"Ah!" she seems to have noticed, "So that's why he helped us. Wait, does that mean he feels guilty over something?"

"Quite possibly. It is very rare to see a helpful Shadow, but I only met one of those before, so there's not much going on with that."

He feels like there's more than just being guilty. Should he be checking on Shirou?

No, it is clear to him that while Shirou having a Palace can be quite a priority for him, Altria is still in danger as of now.

Who knows how long she can stay in there without getting harmed?

"Senpai also told me that when someone is trapped in the TV World, the place around starts raining. By the time the rain stops and fogs appear, a dead body of that person will be found after the fogs disappear."

That's the answer.

Then, this takes a lot more priority. A Palace can wait, but a friend's life is more important.

This is what always happened after all. Sometimes his friends found themselves in trouble inside the Palace, and the whole operation will be dismissed for the day.

It is easy to say that the Phantom Thieves do have the 'power of friendship' with them.

Tsubasa finally finishes her words, "I'll be calling her after this and ask for her advice, so you should sit tight for now."

He simply nods as he now reaches the gate, not realizing another stare from a certain female.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

As usual, it seems Akira has decided that he will definitely spend his lunch break with Sakura.

After all, she is the first fellow Persona User he met. Why not people with similar attribute flock together?

"How's Lancer?" he asks her as they munch on their food.

She replies with, "Can't believe she is actually a lot nicer than the one we saw in nii-san's Palace. I haven't been with her ever since she was summoned, so I don't know much about her. But I do feels like she really loves having me as my Master. She obeys me almost instantly."

"Must be different living in there right now, what's with your brother is in juvenile."

She simply nods. He can see there is a smile on her face. She must have really hated him.

The girl suddenly turns her head around, "Senpai, who is that person you walked with yesterday?"

Whaaa-?

Suddenly the air feels a bit different here.

He can feel some heat coming out of her eyes. Her tone even sounding less friendly than earlier. There is also this feeling that forces him not to run away from this subject, even if he didn't intend to.

"Just a tourist I made a friend with yesterday. She came all the way from England and just so happen to meet me when she got lost, so I helped her find her way."

"Really?" Sakura asks him, with the consonants are being pressed for clarification.

He quickly nods.

The purple-haired girl sighs, "That reminds me of something. I heard that today my class is supposed to have two transfer students coming in, but only one person shows up."

Hmm… strange…

She continues, "I think I heard from the teachers saying that the missing student is a foreigner."

Wait, a foreigner student? Could it be that Altria is that missing student?

So she's not a tourist?

Suspicions arise inside him as he started to wonder if her arrival here is not a mere coincidence.

As he ponders on this question and more, he still did not notice of prying eyes nearby, looking straight toward him.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Well, it's not like he can do anything about her as of now. Entering an unknown area without knowing anything is really dangerous.

Akira barely knows what a TV World looks like. Does he need a map in there? Is it really the same as Metaverse?

For now, he should be waiting for more info from Tsuba-

…

…

He is about to go toward a floor lower and straight home when he notices of a twin-tailed girl simply standing before him, eyes straight at him, frowning over something unknown to him.

"Can I help you?" he politely asks her that question.

Rin speaks up to him, "I am grateful of whatever you did for my sister. I didn't know the cruelty she faced throughout her life living with Matou family."

Well, of course you won't know anything. Sakura seems to be pretty good at hiding it. Even with that kind of treatment received daily, she still able to face forward with a smile plastered on her face when in school.

Some people are like that after all. He remembers Shiho Suzui, Ann's best friend who has been molested for quite a long time yet she tries her best acting like nothing happen just so that Ann won't suspect a thing.

The girl speaks up again, "But then you dragged her into the Holy Grail War, making her a substitute master for her brother."

He would love to correct her words, "That's not true. Sakura is the real ma-"

"There is also the fact that you are a not a Master of Blue, and that makes you my enemy."

Rude.

Also, she seems to have either a bad memory, or a massive ego, or an inability to actually listen to people. He would love it if he could lean to the first point, but then there is this one simple truth of her being really smart in this school.

"Don't get me wrong," she now pulling her hand up, gesturing in number two closed together, fingers pointing at him, "I didn't really like this method either, but our team leader told us to abandon all chivalry and use any method or opportunity necessary in order to win the war."

With that, familiar red and black beams are shot repeatedly at him, forcing him to quickly move to the side and dodging the shots.

That was close…

"Gandr?" he speaks out loud, and Rin quickly catches on his words.

"You really are a magus then, Kurusu-san. There is no way a non-magus can recognize a simple Scandinavian curse."

It is? He wouldn't know. He's not a magus.

He pushes his head, peering at her, now seeing her hands covered in magical circuits- my god, that's way too many!

He is going to stay there all day with that amount of circuits. From what Sakura told him, Gandr didn't take much of prana, so it is quite a preferable way of attacking.

He knows he will have to fight a Master or a Servant one way or another. He never thought it would be this fast.

He didn't see her Servant here, so she must have been set as a trap in case he either runs to the rooftop or reaching the outside.

Quickly, he can feel his clothing burning, now having him wearing his Phantom Thief outfit, meaning he is ready for a fight.

Pulling out his gun, he jumps out of his cover, pointing his weapon toward her, and quickly pulls the trigger few times.

Rin startled to see his weapon, quickly pushing herself into the cover instead as she sees the bullets reaching the floor and ricochet somewhere else.

"A modern weapon? What kind of a magus are you!?"

Obviously the rarest one; the non-magus magus.

Taking this chance, he moves close to the window and opens it up.

Tohsaka seems to have move out of her cover, this time seeing his foot already on the edge of the window.

"Wha- this is the second floor! What are you trying to do!?" she screams out, somehow looking concern at him.

Giving off a wide smile, Joker jumps off from the building, straight to the ground and landing perfectly without breaking anything.

His status as half-Servant is quite handy here.

Without wasting any chance, he quickly runs out from there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And he is right about where Archer is.

As soon as he approaches the field, he is greeted by an arrow shot near his foot, making him stopping on his track.

Pulling his head up, he sees the girl in red, holding white and black blades, standing in the middle of the field with a wide smile on her face, "Hello there~!"

Along with that, he can hear footsteps reaching him from behi- wait, hold on!

Did she jump out of the window like he did? How did she get here so fast?

"Well, I guess I couldn't run away from any of you."

As he said such words, his eyes say otherwise, trying so hard to figure a way to escape the battle.

Against heroes of the old, he would love it if he didn't fight any of them. Some of them are truly monsters weird powers, either actually real or made into existence thanks to their legends.

Could his non-complicated Persona magic is even up to par against their magecraft?

Who knows?

Archer swings her blades around, suddenly sprinting forward as she shouts at him, "Here I come!"

 **"Ose!"**

The caped leopard man Persona appears right before the white-haired girl manages to slash him down, deflecting her blades with his own.

Ose then pushes her off, breaking the two blades into pieces as she is now forced to stand away from the creature.

Rin seems to be in total denial, "D-did you just called him 'Ose'? As in, one of the demons of Goetia!? That's impossible! Nobody should be able to summon any demons or any other non-human beings as a Servant! You not only summoned three different Servants, but a demon one? I cannot accept that!"

She keeps on screaming, "There must be a secret behind that! I know it! That must be your familiar! Of course, that should be the only explanation for that!"

Well… one point for Rin Tohsaka, maybe…

"Wait… then which one is your Servant!?" she screams out what seems to be a question.

He would like to treat that as a rhetorical one and focus on escaping this Archer before him. Now that her blades have been brok-

Owh, come on!

Widening his eyes in shock, Archer has her blades reappears inside her hand, grinning wide, "Quite a strong familiar you got there. But I am kinda disappointed that you use your familiar against me instead of calling your Servant instead."

Maybe he should be telling them that he IS a Servant?

Nah…

With his mask returns to his face and Ose disappears, he searches through the sea of souls before pulling out another one, **"Yoshitsune!"**

A katana-wielding samurai appears, now ready for a fight against Archer as she moves forward.

Yoshitsune moves forward and strikes her, but somehow she simply steps aside and escapes the strike, actually reaching him and smashes her blades onto the samurai, forcing him to defend himself with another of his blade.

But Archer quickly stumbles when the samurai disappears out of nowhere, now having Joker runs toward her.

" **Garudyne!"**

He shoots a wind out, hitting her as she spins and kneels down from the force of the wind.

Joker then jumps above her, taking this chance and starts spamming his bullets against her.

"Archer!" Rin screams out at her own Servant, as she pulls out her gems, ready to support her.

But the girl in red doesn't seem to have a need of that.

Instead, few swords appear around her, floating and acting as defense mechanism against his hot leads, deflecting each attack with ease.

Archer chuckles, "You are one interesting Servant."

Wait… whaaaaaa-

"WHAT!?" Rin screams out at her, "Are you stupid!? Why would you call him a Servant!?"

The girl turns to look at her Master, "That's because he is. You are a Master, didn't you sense his's Servant's aura near him?"

"Isn't that's just his Servant sticking close to- Hold on!" the twin-tailed girl seems to have notice of something, "That Servant's aura still lingers around him when he jumps over you, and that aura is with him all the time!"

Crap…

He should get going now.

He needs a distraction.

" **Ishtar!"**

For some reason, Rin looks like she flinches a bit when the name of the goddess of love and war is summoned, appear near him in the form of beautiful blonde woman with uneven horns.

Archer somehow shows a big smile on her face, "My, my, that's no ordinary familiar."

"What do you mean by that?" Rin turns toward her.

"It's just like Ose, this emits quite an aura from her. I thought that's just how familiar feels like coming from him, but this one has some divinity in her. Feels like she is a real goddess."

 _"That is correct, my child,"_ Ishtar smiles at her, before turning toward her Master, giving a smile while making Rin quite uncomfortable, especially by how little she covers her skin.

For some reason, her hands are fidgeting with her gems.

Archer, on the other hand, opens up her mouth wide, "Wha- Don't tell me summoning something like these is your Noble Phantasm? That's cheating!"

Says someone who still have swords floating around.

Akira wastes no time ordering his Persona to commence an attack, "Ishtar, **Maziodyne!** "

 _"Understood, Master,"_ she nods as she flips herself around.

Two stream of lighting starts shooting from above, getting them startled as they are barely surviving the attacks.

"Again," Joker speaks up, ready to escape them.

Another Maziodyne are about to be shot, but Archer quickly moves her fingers onto her right hand, "Not this time!"

She reveals a black band around her wrist with lines on it, as the lines fly off from the band and start to form a shape, all the while she mutters, **"The Carven Bow: Failnaught."**

Failnaught? One of the Knights of Round, Tristan's bow?

 **"Phantom Canceller!"**

With a scream, Archer shoots out a beam that goes straight to where the lightning is about to hit, forming a huge gust of wind as the lightning simply disappears, as if they are getting swallowed.

That… thing just ate his Zio! That thing just ate his ZIO!

Archer sees this opportunity and pulls out a white thin sword, charging forward and strikes him down, except he pulls out his knife to defend himself against that attack, merely being pushed away from her.

That is quite a troublesome skill. Is that a Noble Phantasm? Feels like that thing used quite some prana here.

Damn… well, he just had to keep on fighting till he finds that one opportunity he can take to escape.

Archer seems to be really persistent, moving close to him and start spamming strikes onto him, not letting him off from her sight and not even let him do anything else.

"Able to summon gods and demons to your side; what kind of Servant are you? What is your True Name?" she suddenly barrages him with such questions.

He simply grunts, moving off away from her and prepare to pull out another Servant, " **Siegfried!"**

A dark-skinned man in red armor appears before him, standing in stance, holding tight to his sword.

Archer smiles even wider at him, speaking out to him, "That is really cool! You even summon a hero by your side. You don't even need to pull out this grail war nonsense just to summon one. Alaya would kill to get that ability of yours."

"Still," she pulls out some more of her swords around her, even the black and white blades she used before, "It is my duty to defeat the enemy Servant. I am a fellow Servant after all."

She then charges forward, with the swords around her are launched forward.

 **"Vorpal Blade!"** Akira screams out an order.

Hearing that, Siegfried goes for a single strike, not even having the enemy reach him yet.

But, that action seems to have been enough as streams of slashes in the form of white lights appear all around her, taking and breaking some of the blades around her while knocking others down.

Fortunately for her, she is stuck in the middle of the strikes, not moving from the spot, "That is sooo close~!"

"Enough!"

Finally, something stop them from fighting even further.

Jeanne enters the scene, calling out to Rin, "Master of Archer, withdraw your Servant from this unnecessary fight."

"Wha-" the girl is clearly not taking her order well, "R-Ruler! What are you talking about!? I am fighting an enemy Servant!"

"He is not a Servant of Red.'

"Wait, really?" Archer turns toward, already dismissing her blade, "Strange…"

Rin pushes questions onto her, "Ruler, what do you mean by that? What do you mean, he is not a Servant of Red? What is he then?"

Ruler simply responds with, "He is a Servant on the neutral side, like me. He has a different duty that does not concern any of you."

"I… I see…" the heiress seems silenced, looking away as she now turns toward Akira, "I-"

"Sorry for the fight there," Archer moves close toward Kurusu, bowing slightly at him, "My Master just doesn't like you making her sister as a Master."

"Overprotective, huh?" Akira mutters, "I understand. Sisterly love can be quite troublesome."

"I know, right~?" she chuckles, before wondering, "Say, what is your Servant class?"

"Fool."

"Wh-" It's Tohsaka's turn to get close to him, "What kind of class is that!? I have never heard of that kind of class!"

"It's… a…. a special class I was summoned into."

Archer seems to be doing a bit of thinking, "Fool… like the Tarot card?"

Her Master turns toward her, "The Tarot card, Fool… the new beginning of a life… that sounds a bit too powerful to be a Servant's class."

Jeanne coughs a bit, getting their attention as she mutters, "Then, my work here is done."

As she is about to move away, she suddenly hears her stomach growling.

And now, everyone is looking at her.

"Eh?" Archer springs a question, "Ruler, are you hungry? Shouldn't you, as a Servant, not feeling starving at all?"

"Ah… well…" Ruler seems to be unable to speak, and she seems not wanting to answer that question.

Akira sighs, walking toward Jeanne, "Then, you should come to my home then. I'll cook something good for you."

"Wait!" Rin speaks up, "I still have a lot of question! You are not running away from me this time!"

"Sure, let us all go to my home together."

"What about this guy?" Archer points out toward Siegfried who is still standing there.

Somehow, nobody points out how Akira's eyes are still burning…

As he dismissed him, he couldn't help but notice that Jeanne D'arc is wiping something from her eyes and cheeks.

She notices his stare before quickly gives off a smile for him, "W-we should get going now."

With the party moving away out from the school, none of them realized that a girl in black ponytail just stares at them, standing side by side with a purple-haired man, also with a ponytail, wearing a kimono and a sword is strapped behind his back.

The two walk away from there.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shirou decided that he is going for a grocery shopping that evening, pretty much what he always did for the household. It is something that Sella would willingly to give up on.

He also get to go this very good store that somehow makes him feel like at home; Junes.

 _"Every day is great at your Junes~!"_

That song is quite catchy, he had to admit. Sometimes he ended up humming the song while at home. It has this hypnotic feel to it.

"Saber, you really didn't need to come with me," he speaks up, looking at the blonde Servant in white shirt and blue skirt, staring at him with a stern face.

"I cannot do that, Shirou," she replies to him, "Kiritsugu told me to watch over you. Your actions before will garner the attention of the enemies."

"I can protect myself."

"So do I."

Shirou simply decides to be quiet and keeps on picking for ingredients.

"Stuck inside a TV? That's ridiculous. Otou-sama, I have never heard of this dimension called 'Midnight Channel'. Is it a Reality Marble? The grail didn't tell me about this."

The redheaded male quickly pulls his head up, looking around.

"It's Caster and her Master," Saber speaks up, gaining the attention of the young Emiya.

His eyes caught the sight of what appears to be a grey-haired man walking alongside the pink-haired girl in striped sweater.

Those two are the people Saber mentioned.

TV… midnight…

Could they be talking about the one from last night? The girl with Saber's face?

Slowly he sneaks forward, following the two with Saber calling out for him, "Shirou, what are you doing?"

He keeps on stalking the two, ignoring Saber's words as he now stops and seeing the two standing before the TV section.

The girl turns to look at him, "Otou-sama, why aren't we doing this at our room?"

The man simply shrugs, "Force of habit, I guess?"

He slowly approaches one of the bigger TVs, and starts to look both sides of them, before moving his hand across the sc-

The hand is inside the TV…

Wh-what?

"Trace On…" he whispers to himself, using his scanning ability and scans the TV.

There doesn't seem to be any different than normal TV, but somehow the man is able to enter the TV slowly and disappears.

The girl in pink is nearly screaming, but closing her mouth with her hands, before trying the same thing.

She managed to do the same, entering the TV fully with no problem.

Now Shirou decides to do the same.

He approaches the TV, looking both ways and confirming that nobody is around before moving his hand close to the scree-

"Shirou, stop," Saber grabs his hand as he is in shock.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

[Earlier that morning]

Sakura, as usual, sitting inside her class as other girls seem to be gathering around her.

It seems she has no problem making friends as she thought it is going to be, what's with the issue with her brother.

Maybe she was reading too much into this? She was so sure that people are going to look at her as if she is a criminal if people learn about that.

The teacher soon enters the class, with all students sit at their own tables.

"Class," he speaks up to them all, "We have a new student starting today. She just transferred here from Tokyo and I hope you are being nice to her. We are supposed to have two students today, but sadly the other one is not here today."

He then turns to where the door is, calling out to whoever is outside right now, "Come in."

Sakura sees a black-haired, ponytailed girl enters the class, seeing that she didn't wear their uniform or brown and white, instead wearing her own black blazer with checkered skirt.

The girl looks at them all, speaks up with no tone of voice whatsoever, "Good morning, I am Shiho Suzui."

The teacher speaks to her, "Suzui-san, you should… sit beside Sakura. She is that purple-haired girl over there."

The girl slowly walks toward Sakura and goes to sit where the empty desk is at.

Sakura stares at her, seeing how something about the girl's eyes that scream familiarity to her.

She has this urge to speak to her, to at least be acquainted to her, thanks to the same sense of familiarity the girl gave her.

"Hey, my name is Sakura Matou," she whispers to her.

The girl turns toward her, slightly nod as an act of greeting.

 **End chapter.**

 **It has come to my attention that some people have hard time reading this due to numbers of characters.**

 **To that, I ask that you guys don't read this story like a map.**

 **If you have hard time following characters, simply do what I always do; follow the characters as they appear in the story.**

 **I use this trick when watching anime like Naruto, or playing games like Kingdom Hearts; both have numerous characters and overly complicated plots.**

 **In this chapter, there are less Kiritsugu, less Sakura and no Shinji. Do not follow their story.**

 **In this chapter, there are Yu, Shirou and obviously, Akira. Follow them all.**

 **The story is very simple, really. If they are not mention in the present, then they do nothing until being mentioned.**

 **On a serious note, I am really sorry if you find this story hard to follow. We didn't even reach Tokyo yet.**

 **Oops, spoiler…**

 **It is also come to my attention that people have been confusing Archer of Blue as Kuro.**

 **She's not.**

 **It has been mention so many times that Archer looks like Iri or Illya. Last chapter, Saber mentioned that both Archer and Illya have the same hair color and the same SKIN color.**

 **It should be noted that Kuro has a dark skin and her hairstyle isn't even close to Illya. She also has a different voice actress.**

 **It should be noted that EMIYA, who also fits the same condition, has never been confused with Shirou.**

 **It should also be noted that most characters in this story are in no way came from Fate/Kaleid world, who are so dumb they couldn't differentiate a nice white skinned girl and a slutty dark skinned girl.**

 **This dumd anime logic has been oppressing our mind for too long. It needs to stop.**

 **Please call 1-800-KURONOTILLYA and you too can make a difference.**

 **Next: Alongside Touma and Astolfo, Akira finally ventures into the TV world, and on the way, they meet Yu and Caster and the two fight. Meanwhile, Rin and Archer are being ambushed by Berserker of Red.**

 **Red team is still in need of Caster and I intended to have a character from SMT4A to be the Master. Tell me who should be the Master (again, not Nanashi. Please stop asking him to be Ruler either) and who should be the Servant.**

 **Blue Team:-**

 **Saber = Kiritsugu Emiya & Artoria Pendragon**

 **Archer = Rin Tohsaka & Archerko**

 **Lancer = Sakura Matou & Medusa**

 **Rider = ? & ?**

 **Caster = Yu Narukami & Tamamo no Mae**

 **Assassin = Olga Marie Animusphere & ?**

 **Berserker = Flat Escardos & ?**

 **Red Team:-**

 **Saber = ? & ?**

 **Archer = Kotone Shiomi & Athena (Aigis)**

 **Lancer = ? & Cu Chulainn**

 **Rider = Touma Akagi & Astolfo**

 **Caster =**

 **Assassin = ? & ?**

 **Berserker = ? & ?**

 **Neutral:-**

 **Ruler = Jeanne D'arc**

 **Fool = Akira Kurusu**


	9. Before the Mist

**Before the Mist**

"Kurusu-kun… you are bringing another girl into our home again…" Tsubasa chuckles sheepishly, seeing at the table, her cousin is sitting with Jeanne, Rin Tohsaka from her class and an unknown pale skin woman beside her, eating some meal.

"You really are popular with girls…"

"No," Akira quickly responds to her, not hesitate even few seconds there.

He would love if nobody tries to pull in his Valentine's nightmare back into his brain.

Jeanne stands up, now bowing before her, "Forgive me for entering your home without your knowledge."

"N-no… it's fine!" Oribe quickly replies to her, "Kurusu-kun already invited you in here, right? This isn't really our home anyway. We are just renting here."

"I see," she mutters, "Thank you very much for your consideration."

The long-haired girl then mutters looking at him, "Still, I didn't know you know of Rin-san from my class."

Akira nonchalantly responds to her, "She was jealous that I was hanging out with Sakura Matou."

"E-eh?"

Rin stands up, screaming at him with her face looks suspiciously red, "Would you please stop that already!?"

But then she heard someone chuckles, with her eyes slowly move toward Tsubasa.

She sweats heavily. Her skin turns red.

Akira wonders if something damages from inside her. She looks like has that look where she is going to burst into embarrassment.

Oribe simply mutters, seeing her attention, "I'm sorry. It's just… I've never seen Rin-san acting as natural as tonight."

"What do you mean by-"

Before Tohsaka even able to finish her question, somebody appears entering the room.

"Oi, Tsubasa, why would you leave all the groceries to us? I know we are both men, but none of us are bodybuilders to carry out all these stuffs, you know?"

Touma enters the place, with Astolfo joining him from behind, "Come on, Master! You know I can do that all by myself! Just leave it to me!"

"Did you know how dangerous it is for me to just leave these to someone like you? People are going to talk behind our back. My career as a hero is going to be over real fast."

The two finally notice of Akira's guest, particularly toward a certain twin-tailed girl and the white-haired girl besides her.

"AH!"

Both Servants now pointing their fingers toward each other.

Rin stands up, pulling out some gems as she screams out, "Enemy Servant!?"

"You guys seem to have managed to track us down, it seems!" Touma motions his person into a fighting stance, "So be it! I may not be as good as my Servant, but I know I can take you down that easily!"

Jeanne now stands up, furiously as she shouts at them both, "ENOUGH!"

The flag pole appears inside her hand, as her armor also appears into existence. She then smashes the lower end of the pole onto the floor.

Both pairs of Masters and Servants now stop, startled by her action.

She continues shouting at them all, "This is not a place to fight! This home is a neutral territory and there is a civilian as of right now! I will not allow any of you to continue with your fight any further!"

Akira is calmly munches onto his food as he mutters, "Just listen to her. She's the Ruler-class Servant of this war. You don't want to mess with her."

Both pairs are taken aback by her stares, finally settling down as Touma now questions him, "Why would you bring them into your house?"

Rin speaks up, "I have a lot of questions to ask him. He is a Servant with an irregular Class and he exhibits strange magecraft I've never seen before. I would like to know why Master and Servant of Red are here."

"We live here, at least for the duration of this war," Astolfo quickly blurts out.

Tohsaka mumbles, "I see. That's good to know."

Kurusu glares at her, knowing what is exactly inside her mind right now, "If you try to ambush us, you'll see that I've yet to pull out my strongest Persona."

"Persona? What is that?"

Archer mutters curiously, "I bet it's those people you summoned during our battle. What are those anyway? It feels like familiar, but not quite like them."

Owh, boy… It seems another group is asking for a long, winding, explanation.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 _"Father, why can't I join all of you in Trifas!?"_

 _Altria is now facing her father, standing before him within a corridor as she speaks out to him, "You told me that I am going to be the heiress of the Pendragon. Why am I being left out here?"_

 _The blonde man before her holds her shoulders tight, muttering to her, "I can't let you do that."_

 _"Why!? Whatever happens in Trifas, surely you need all help you can get, right? That is why Lady Fiore gathered us all together, isn't it? Why else would the esteemed leader of all Yggdmillennia family to do so?"_

 _"Altria, you are still too young to understand this-"_

 _"Lady Fiore isn't that much older than I am! I am two years younger than her!"_

 _"She is the elder of Yggdmillennia. Age means nothing to her."_

 _"I am the heiress of the Pendragon branch of the family, how am I any different!?"_

 _Her father screams out at her, "Because you are still a child, Altria! Fiore is a talented magus, even surpassing those older than her within the whole family. Your magecraft is nothing that could be compared to her! If you want to be part of her aide in Trifas, you should first show yourself worthy of her beforehand!"_

 _He quickly walks away from there, leaving her there, who simply stares at him._

 _It seems his words has shocked her, who seems to have her eyes widen and shivering uncontrollably._

 _Another blonde female appears into the scenery, noticing her as she calls out to her, "Yo, Altria! Whatcha doing there?"_

 _Altria quickly turns her head to the side, startled by her voice as she responds, "N-nothing…"_

 _"Uncle Gawain sounds pretty rough just now," the girl sighs, "I can hear his voice all the way from my room."_

 _The heiress mumbles, "Must be nice being you, Mordred."_

 _"What was that?"_

 _"I said," she turns toward the woman, "Must be nice being you. You get to join the whole for Trifas. I can't even do that! I am not worthy, he said!"_

 _Mordred relaxes her head with her arms on the back, muttering, "You are an heiress still in training to be as good as King Arthur himself. I am just a tool with the name of his incest son. You can see where the value lies."_

 _"Nonsense!" she screams out at her, "You are my cousin; my sister! I don't have any other sister beside you!"_

 _"Try and say that to your father."_

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Altria opens up her eyes.

She pushes herself, standing up as she looks around her surroundings.

It's the same kingdom again.

This is not a dream? But what is this place? And who is that person before her?

"Ah, have you woken up?" the female before her, looking like her but wearing a silver and blue armor instead, stands before her, speaking to her with quite a condescending tone.

"Who- who are you, really?"

For some reason, she feels herself getting weak, as she just stares at this person before.

Altria remembers that the first time she saw this strange being, she quickly pulls out her sword, ready for a fight. But this person before her pulls out a stronger weapon and easily defeating her.

She also felt somewhat drained during their match.

What is this place? Why this place is seems to be hurting her the more she stays here?

"Me?" the doppelganger replies to her, "I am the king of this place! I am here to defeat all of which opposing me and my position! Those who think I am nobody, but still putting me on a high pedestal, should see themselves as a slave for me to command!"

"What are you-?"

"Even if they are my father, and that high and might queen, Fiore! I will show them how worthy I am to hold the name Pendragon! I am, after all, the descendant of the Great King himself!"

Her words… they are like poison to her.

"Stop…" she mutters out to this person.

"How should I go and prove I am worthy? Perhaps I should kill them all? The Pendragon, the Yggdmillennia, everyone! As the one who bears the name of King Arthur, I should have all the right to fight them all!"

"Stop…"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Persona? Shadow? How come I've never heard any of these?" Rin sounds really baffled by the explanation given by Akira.

Tsubasa quickly responds to her, "Waver-san told us that he really doesn't want anybody to know about us, and has agreed to hide our existence no matter what so that none of us gets the… um…"

"Sealing designation?" Archerko suggests as she quickly responds, "Yeah, that one!"

Tohsaka mutters to herself, "That seems plausible enough. It's too cruel to just put sealing designation on you guys when none of you are- wait, you guys aren't magi!?"

Did she just realize that one? Does all of those times Akira wasted on giving explanation away for her means nothing until now? Or is she too preoccupied with other terms?

Rin now screams in wonder toward him, "But- but, what about those magecraft you guys did? Does none of those required prana?"

Akira mutters, "My magic, or magecraft, do not technically come from myself. All of those I used just now are all based on my Persona's abilities. If they can shoot lightning I can also shoot lightning."

"But it still acts like prana, right? There's no way you could just use them repeatedly like that unless you have huge amount of something like magic circuit. Overusing them are going to busted your body bad, right?"

"Not really. The amount of Persona magic we can use do depend on how much our body can handle, but overusing it will only lead to depletion of magic. There are of course, some of the attacks that use our health as a payment, but it's nothing much compare to the attacks itself."

"N-nothing much!?" the girl in red could not believe what she just heard.

She looks like she just discovered an uncharted territory underneath her home or something, and that she has no idea the existence of this territory.

Akira continues, "Yeah, we can simply heal ourselves or regain our magic by using certain items."

"You have a Mystic Code for that?"

"There's more than one. We can just make tons of it. A lot of items can do a lot of crazy stuff, even teleporting us shortly toward somewhere safe."

Rin now seems like she is doing some sort of thinking, with a pair of glasses magically appears on her head as she is heard mumbling out loud, "The ability to summon a familiar capable of fighting on par as the Servants, using Second magic-like ability to traverse into different dimensions with ease, even having numerous Mystic Codes. Not to mention these abilities owned not by veteran magus, but non-magi youngsters… I can see why Lord El-Melloi II would not want to tell the moonlit world of this discovery."

It seems she still rambling, even with others around her just stare at her, speechless.

"Not only will the magi dissect these people in order to research more on the subject of Persona and Shadow, but the fact that Gaia and Alaya's influences doesn't seems to have taken effect on them means that everything we've learned about them before could have been interpreted as a lie, thus creating chaos among the magi. Magi way of life will be threatened and a war might happen."

Kurusu mutters, "War will be the least of our concern."

All eyes are now onto him.

Jeanne questions him first, "What do you mean by that?"

"When I was given the ability to summon a Persona, I was immediately given a role as a trickster against these Shadows, and I used these abilities of stealing their hearts to save those around me from any more threat coming from these people, and for them to tell the truth of their misdeed. But it is all a ruse made by a greater evil that wishes for people to plunge their own world into the state of perpetual ignorance, unwilling to change for the better or care for those around them."

"I believe other Persona users, even the Mirage Masters were given their abilities for something similar. We may have been forced to encounter something that threatens this world, happens from a dimension of their own, free from the influence of Gaia and Alaya."

Wow, he made that last part on the go.

But, now that he thinks about it, even with Alaya acting as humanity's defensive mechanism, and Gaia as the shield of the world itself, they could not possibly be able to interrupt anything that happens within the Metaverse, right? The dimension is a world far from being logical, and since it is also not made by human, but instead by mysterious entities dwelling inside the Velvet Room, there is no Alaya and Gaia could just send their Counter Force and Ultimate Ones to combat the threat that once appear in the real world, may have been too late, right?

Akira continues, "If the magi community decides to dissect us, or create more problems for us to handle, instead of a war that involve them and normal people, these threats may have become worsen."

Tsubasa joins in as well, "We told Waver-san about us as well, that a dragon from other world we fought that wanted to drain everyone from their Performa."

Seeing Rin looking confused, Touma quickly speaks up to her, "People who have been drained of their Performa will become filled with despair."

Tohsaka mutters once more, "A Phantasmal Beast is one thing, but one that comes from another world, and could harm someone's psyche is a bad idea in itself. Lord El-Melloi II is def- wait, did you just called him Waver-san?"

Archer is now glaring at her, muttering, " _Now_ you realized she has been doing that?"

Oribe chuckles, "Sorry, I forgot he is a powerful figure among magi. He told us all not to call him by his title since we may have incites some suspicion if his title is used on public. He also really doesn't want us to keep forgetting the number 2 at the back of the name."

"That… sounds like him…"

Rin somehow keeps the glasses on, looking blank before turning toward Akira, calling out to him, "Let me join you!"

"Wh-what?"

"I would like to do a research on these Persona and Palace you have mentioned off."

That doesn't sounds so good. Isn't the whole point of them being a secret is not to be researched on?

Rin speaks up some more, "That seaweed… Shinji Matou. You changed his heart, right?"

Kurusu mutters, wondering where this is going, "Yeah?"

"If you left him alone, will he ever become worse than today?"

The Fool replies, "Maybe not. His arrogance seems to be grounded with what he could only have. But his action does able to hurt and potentially bring up the worse out of others. Sakura may have gone rogue instead. If she is powerful enough to be given a Command Seal by the grail, it is reasonable to think that she is capable of harming others as well."

Rin now wonders of this, "Yeah… she is a capable magus if she was nurtured by my father instead of me… She may have been better than me."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Somewhere, in a different, unrelated world, a white haired girl with purple ribbon on the side suddenly felt some sort of warmth inside her.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The twin tailed girl keeps on speaking, "My family is the Second Owner of this place. I am responsible for anything supernatural in this place. I could never walk away, knowing that bad things may have come under my own nose!"

She seems to be really determined of this.

Astolfo quickly speaks up, "That's unwise. Will you really want to work with us? We are your enemy, remember?"

"This and that are different things entirely. I will still fight you for the grail, but if there is something else could harm this place, I cannot overlook that."

Touma smiles at her, standing up as he offers her his hand, "I like your guts, lady! When facing a more pressing matters, heroes should definitely teaming up. Then, we can have a truce for things like this, right?"

Tohsaka nods, shaking his hand with a firm grip.

Both Archer and Rider look astonished, clapping their hands in amusement. Jeanne simply smiles as she is seen finishing off their meal.

Yes, they are having this conversation, all while eating and Jeanne is the only one who is still eating.

Kurusu notices of her action this whole time, "You look like you're really hungry."

"Y-yeah… I am…"

"Were you summoned into a body too, instead of having a form like other Servants?"

Ruler nods, but then she responds, "I cannot disclose that information when everyone is around. I can, however, tell you about this next time. We have similar cases, after all."

He nods.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It is now midnight.

Slowly, Shirou walks out of his room, moving straight to the living room.

The TV channel on the midnight…

He feels a huge need to check this one out. Is it true then? Was he not hallucinated before?

"Shirou, what are you doing?"

The voice startles him, nearly pushing him off onto the floor, "S-Saber? What are you doing here? Why aren't you sleeping?"

Before him, Saber of Blue stares at him, glaring, "We, Servants do not need to sleep."

"I-I see…"

"What about you, Shirou? Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I… I just…"

His brain scrambles through all the ideas, trying to figure out a good lie for this question. There is no way he could just tell her that he is going to watch the TV for any suspicious channel without being looked as one himself.

Of course, he never considers his own strange luck.

The TV turns on by itself, showing the Saber look-alike once again.

"Come, all of thee, to my castle! Come, all of thee, to this festive, historic moment as I dismiss all of my challengers! It is I, the one and only, Arthur Pendragon, the king of all knights!"

The TV turns off by itself.

Shirou has finally confirms it. It is not a dream. The channel on the midnight is real.

But then, Caster and her Master… what were they doing back then? Do they enter the TV… to join this… this channel?

He turns toward Saber, quickly noticing her silent, "S-Saber?"

She looks pissed, "What is this… mockery? Never have I seem so pathetic in my entire life… That is NOT how a king should act!"

The rest of the night, other than sleeping, Shirou spends some of those times calming her down so that she won't just outburst into anger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hours earlier, Rin and Archer has finally returns home, back to their mansion as they now enters the home.

Both of them look wet, probably because of the rain outside

They would've stayed at Oribe's home, but she still care about her maid being all alone.

"We're home~!" Archer screams out happily, seems to be hoping for someone to come greet them.

Someone did do so.

The family's maid, Kohaku, arrives toward the front door, bowing politely toward her master, "You've finally home, Rin-sama? Would you like to have a supper?"

Rin seems to be startled by her appearance, quickly responds to her, "N-no. I'm still full as of now."

"Then, would you like for me to prepare the water for a bath?"

"Y-Yes, please."

As the maid quietly disappears from their sight, Archer turns to her Master, "Were you thinking about them just now?"

Her Master nods, "I still couldn't believe there are such thing like Persona, or the fact that people without magic circuit still able to use magecraft with ease."

Archer simply stretches her arms upward, "I'm not surprised. Magecraft is already a mystery of its own. There are variations of magecraft throughout this world. Some can shoot things with jewel. Others create duplicates of weapons. Who's to say that people summoning gods by their side is not another of those possibilities?"

"Yeah… you're right. We have been led to think that we cannot summon gods because all this time, the only known fact of when Heaven's Feel is being used is during Holy Grail War, and these wars dictate that divine spirits and gods cannot be summoned due to the need for numerous amount of mana. It is because of that perception that we thought something outside of norm is impossible."

As she mutters those words, she realized that while she wishes for her family to stray away from the old tradition of magus that separate her sister away from her, she ended up becoming the old school magus herself, locked away in an impression that everything is what she knows of.

Rin turns toward her Servant, wishing to say something, but quickly losing her intention to do so when she sees the white-haired girl is looking around, seemingly under alert as she asks her, "What is wrong with you?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's just my imagination."

Rin sighs, mumbling, "I should be getting ready for the bath. Would you like to join me for today?"

Now, Archer has changed her look, glaring at her with a grin on her face, "Ooh, is that an invitation? So, is Akira Kurusu correct all along?"

"W-What are you talking about!?"

She clearly knows what she is talking about, as evident by how she storms off from there, "Fine, I just take a bath all by myself! You stay outside!"

Archerko chuckles, looking at her walking away before glaring all over the place once more, "This feeling. There's definitely a Servant here. But where? Outside? Inside?"

Xxxxxxxxxxxx

Rin has finished taking a bath, and now she moves straight to her bedroom, already in her pajama as she rubs her head off from the water.

She seemingly moves past a room, hearing a loud noise coming from it.

The no-longer-twin-tailed girl just stares at the door, looking toward the outside of the room.

This is Kohaku's room.

Surprisingly, while she was raised as a maid for a family related to a moonlit world, she is surprisingly has some form of understanding for technology, such as television, video games and so on.

As such, those payments they paid her are all being used to buy those kinds of stuffs.

Her family doesn't hate her for doing so, but it is understandable if they are putting themselves away from her room because of that.

Still, that doesn't curb her curiosity on a lot of things. She kind of wanted to know why is her younger cousin has a fascination on things like computers.

She also seems to have so much playing these… video games…

Slowly opening the door, peeking through the crack, she sees Kohaku intently playing something, holding onto a controller and button mashing.

But her legs slip, and she falls onto the ground, opening up herself into the room.

Her maid is shock to see her, quickly asking her, "R-Rin-sama, are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"N-no…" Master of Archer pushes herself up, rubbing her face, "I just… I just wish to-"

"Come, all of thee, to my castle!"

?

Tohsaka quickly brings herself up, running into the room and takes a look at the TV.

She is now looking at Saber of Blue, except she wears a completely different costume, more of a suit of knight than her battle dress and looking mug as she screams out, "Come, all of thee, to this festive, historic moment as I dismiss all of my challengers! It is I, the one and only, Arthur Pendragon, the king of all knights!"

The screen that cuts into a gameplay session, as she asks her maid, "Was that… part of the game?"

The red-haired maid shakes her head, "Not at all. This happened before, Rin-sama. Yesterday the TV plays by itself when I clearly turn the TV off. Just now, I didn't even change the channel."

Hmm… she heard of it, from Akira and others.

Midnight Channel? Is that what they called?

"R-Rin-sama?" she stares at her, looking at how happy she looks.

Apparently, Rin Tohsaka has found a new project she would love to involve herself into.

 **Chapter end.**

 **This chapter is supposed to be about Shirou entering the TV world, but I ended up underestimating my ability to write stuff. The chapter is too long already.**

 **But, next: Rin joins the team of Akira, Touma and Astolfo as they saw Shirou suspiciously joining Yu and Caster into the TV. Ah, it seems Akira found a Phantom Thief who would like to kill off the Great Hero.**


End file.
